Comprehensive Plan
7/26/2024 Update:
Those who have been following the development of the Comp Plan are likely aware that a final draft of the Plan was approved by the City Plan Commission on June 18. The Plan was delivered to the City Council before the summer legislative break. Individual Councilpeople may hold community meetings during this break to hear constituent reflections as they consider whether to ask for changes before a vote, which is likely to happen in October. Over the summer and fall, PPS will continue to advocate for key changes to the Plan, including:
– Establishing a citywide design review committee as the city’s existing review committees look at developments downtown and in the local historic districts on the East Side, West Side and parts of Elmwood – which presents an equity problem, as it denies many other neighborhoods across the city the benefits of a thoughtful review process that includes community voice.
– Redefining “historic districts” in the Plan and its growth map to include all of the federally recognized historic districts and landmarks in Providence that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (recognized by the US Park Service for their historical significance), not only the City’s eight local historic districts, because the city’s historic districts overrepresent affluent white neighborhoods, while the federally designated historic districts and landmark sites are more balanced and inclusive.
– Adding a new section that spells out specific ways that the city will further limit demolition and prioritize adaptive reuse and other sustainable building practices.
6/28/2024 Update:
On June 18, the City Plan Commission (CPC) voted to approve the draft Comprehensive Plan – now it goes to the City Council for review and a vote. We hear that the City Council will begin its review process this month and that individual councilors may hold ward meetings to gather community feedback in August during the Council recess. The Council might move to hold hearings on the Plan when they are back in session in September, so a final vote looks likely in late September or early October.
Over the last six months, PPS has prioritized advocacy work related to the Comp Plan as we know that it will ultimately have lasting ramifications on the look and feel of the City, on community members’ capacity to shape planning and development decisions in their neighborhoods, and because we know that decisions made today may fuel gentrification and displacement in the years to come. We issued an official statement on the Plan on June 11, linked here, and wrote about community sentiment about it in The Providence Eye on June 12 here. On June 18 at the CPC hearing, the Planning Department announced some concessions in response to our push to define “historic districts” in the Plan more equitably, but these revisions were minor and do not adequately address the problem, which is that the Plan seeks to place the most restrictions on development in neighborhoods that tend to be affluent and white, despite the fact that there are many nationally recognized historic districts and landmarks in less affluent communities of color.
At the June 18 meeting, the Planning Department also rejected PPS’s call for the establishment of a new citywide design review committee, pointing to the existence of design review committees that oversee the Downtown District, the Capital Center area, and the local historic districts. This also presents an equity problem, as it denies less affluent neighborhoods across the City the benefits of a thoughtful review process that includes community voices. PPS will be working in the coming months to continue to advocate for these and other critical changes as the Plan goes to the City Council for review.
6/11/2024 Update:
Read PPS’s full statement on the Comprehensive Plan here.
5/30/2024 Update:
Last night the City Plan Commission (CPC) met to hear Planning Department and other city staff present final draft chapters of the Comprehensive Plan covering housing, mobility/transportation, community services, and arts & culture, and to hear updates on edits to chapters that have been presented previously on land use and the built environment. Planning Department staff announced that they will be installing an exhibition on the Comp Plan in the ground-floor conference room of 444 Westminster from June 3 – 14. From there, the final Plan will need to go to the CPC for a vote (there is no date for this yet, but it could be in June or July), and then to the City Council (again, no date as of yet).
4/26/2024 Update:
On April 23, the City Plan Commission held the third of three public meetings to introduce draft chapters of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan – a planning document that the city is required to publish every ten years, which serves as a guide to zoning, planning and growth for the following decade. With these three meetings done, the Department of Planning and Development will hold open house community meetings (see “Upcoming Events”) during the first week of May at community libraries and will then begin to finalize the Comp Plan. At the April 23 meeting, PPS Executive Director Marisa Brown gave three comments:
First, she expressed concerns she had shared at the previous meeting in March about how narrowly historic districts were defined in the Plan and stated that she was pleased to hear that the Planning Department was considering adding more properties to these districts. Second, she urged the establishment of a design review committee that would include representatives of the community where a project was being planned. Design review is currently done by Planning Department staff, but this does not allow for community voice or knowledge of neighborhood cultureways to contribute to the shape of the city. Providence is a cosmopolitan city and we want our landscapes to reflect the diversity of the city. Third, she supported Commissioner Verdi’s comment at the meeting that the Comp Plan should incentivize carbon neutrality and stated further that the Comp Plan should also incentivize adaptive reuse and take a holistic building lifecycle approach to accounting for carbon emissions, including measuring the carbon costs of demolition and new construction.
PPS is planning a community meeting in May about the Comp Plan, to include a panel conversation about how it differs from the 2014 Plan, what it means for our future, and how other cities’ plans compare. Stay tuned.
3/28/2024 Update:
On March 19, the City Plan Commission presented more detailed information on the emerging 2024 Comprehensive Plan – a planning document that the city is required to publish every ten years, which serves as a guide to zoning, planning and growth for the following decade. The plan that is emerging is available here, and as our update last month spelled out, its overall goal is to catalyze development and density rapidly. After Deputy Director of Planning Bob Azar presented the plan and a proposed land use map, the Commission accepted public comments. PPS Executive Director Marisa Brown gave three comments.
First, the zones where development would be restricted the most are the city’s eight existing local historic districts, which are primarily on the East Side, West Side, Downtown, and in Elmwood. Providence has 35 nationally recognized historic districts located in neighborhoods throughout the city, not only in the wealthier, whiter neighborhoods that contain the city’s designated historic districts. If the city does not extend higher-level development restrictions beyond the eight existing municipal historic districts, the spatial inequities that already exist in the city would only be magnified, leaving all of the other neighborhoods to bear the brunt of development. This presents an equity problem. Second, the draft plan underlines the importance of adaptive reuse as a development principal, but it will take concerted collaborative work with the City Council and Mayor’s office to ensure that the creative reuse of existing buildings is incentivized. Third, as Providence gears up for growth and development, it is critical for the city to establish a design review committee to ensure that the city we are building lives up to the city we already have.
PPS will hold a community meeting in late April to discuss these and other concerns as we draft a position paper for the City Plan Commission’s consideration. Stay tuned.
2/28/2024 Update:
Last Tuesday, February 20, the Providence City Plan Commission presented a first glimpse of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan, which will guide the city’s development over the next decade. The upshot is that Providence is poised to enter a phase of intense growth that will impact nearly every neighborhood in the city. A color-coded map that was shown marked areas of mixed-use “priority growth” from Downtown to Olneyville along the Woonasquatucket corridor and along South and North Main Streets. Residential neighborhoods have been divided into areas of “managed growth” (areas of infill development for the most part), and “enhanced growth.” If you are wondering where the most substantial changes in residential areas are going to happen, it is likely in these areas of “enhanced growth,” which form a loose bubble around Downtown into Smith Hill, Federal Hill, parts of the West End and Upper South Providence, and around the Wayland Square area.
What’s next: the Commission will present elements of the Comp Plan in greater detail in March, will publish a draft at some point following that, and then will launch a new round of community engagement events. They aren’t giving dates for any of these stages, but we understand that the Comp Plan is to be finalized by or during the fall. As we learn more, we will be assessing the Comp Plan’s protection of Providence’s historic places and neighborhoods. In the 1950s, when so many cities were tearing things down in the name of growth, this city took a different tack and in many neighborhoods, balanced development with preservation. Let’s not squander this inheritance.
12/21/2023 Update:
On December 5, PPS and the City’s Planning Department facilitated a conversation on how the Comprehensive Plan can ensure balance between the city’s growth and the protection of neighborhoods’ historic fabric. While many opinions, wishes, and sentiments were shared regarding the future of Providence, it was clear across all discussions that prioritizing and maximizing adaptive reuse to help increase density is a vital objective for the Comprehensive Plan as the City grows and develops.
9/27/2023:
The City of Providence has launched a new survey to engage the public in the Comprehensive Plan process. Available in six of Providence’s most spoken languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Chinese, and Khmer), the survey seeks to build upon previous engagement to gather ideas and better understand the community’s shared values as they prepare to draft a new plan to guide Providence’s development. Take the survey.