Boiling point (continued) BY IAN DONNIS

The irony, of course, is that Providence long benefited from the kind of benign neglect that made it possible to preserve different elements of the city’s architectural heritage, ranging from industrial buildings and downtown’s old retail core to Benefit Street’s collection of historic homes. Beyond the Providence Place Mall, there was relatively little development in the city during the economic boom of the mid-to-late ’90s, perhaps, as some believe, because of a level of unease that some associated with the City Hall of former mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr.

Now, however, there’s a heightened sense that Providence has become a viable market, and it’s not hard to see why. With the soaring cost of real estate, the city still offers an affordable alternative between New York and Boston, and the improving transit infrastructure makes traveling between the three cities far easier than in the past.

"We have a real opportunity to build Providence for the 21st-century," says Jim DeRentis, board president of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, and a member of the Providence Redevelopment Authority. The danger, DeRentis says, is "[that] unless there is a very strong plan in place, you can see this kind of disparate, disconnected [kind of development]. I think that’s what we’re seeing." In the continued absence of a planning process that matches development with the vision for the future of the city, "I think we’d start to lose our identity."

HUNDREDS OF INVITED GUESTS turned out Thursday, September 30, for a hip opening party to celebrate the dedication of Rising Sun, a 19th-century mill complex reinvented as a mixed-use project, with loft-style apartments and small businesses, in Providence’s Olneyville section. Although some initially rapped Rising Sun as a harbinger of gentrification in the poor and predominantly minority neighborhood around Valley Street, it represents investment and an increase in income diversity for Olneyville. The collaboration between Baltimore’s Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse and Providence’s Armory Revival Company, made possible through tax credits, exemplifies the productive reuse of a historic mill. The project, in many ways, exemplifies smart development in Providence.

When it comes to the Zoning Board’s approval of the luxury condo on Atwells Avenue, however, critics have no shortage of grievances, including the way in which a recommendation from Planning & Development was dismissed and some opponents felt they were treated disrespectfully by chairwoman Sandra Carlson. The College Hill Neighborhood Association’s Touret says people "routinely" complain of unfair treatment before the Zoning Board. Carlson says, however, that Planning & Development recommendations in such a case are purely advisory. She attributes gripes over her conduct to an exchange with the WBNA’s Lang, which Carlson says may have been misconstrued, adding that she was unfamiliar with other complaints.

Beyond the Atwells Avenue condo development, these are some of the other leading areas of concern.

• A successful legal challenge of the Downcity Design Review District by former mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr. (see "Paolino prevails in demolition of Gulf station," News, This just in, July 16) has led property owners, including Paolino, to seek demolition permits for at least three downtown buildings. The threatened buildings are the Providence National Bank Building, near the Turk’s Head Building; the Weybosset Street structure formerly occupied by Buck-A-Book; and the distinctively narrow George C. Arnold Building on Washington Street. Although city officials are seeking a regulatory fix and hope to dissuade the property owners from going ahead with demolition, it’s possible that components of downtown Providence, one of the best intact examples of a 19th-century retail district, will be razed.

• Critics, including City Council President John J. Lombardi, blame the risk of downtown demolition on a failure by the city’s Law Department to file a timely appeal in the Paolino case. Although deputy city solicitor Adrienne Southgate says the city believes Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini was mistaken in deciding that a motion was not filed in a timely way, some see this as another instance in which city agencies are not adequately representing the public. As previously reported in the Phoenix (see "The strange case of the vanishing park," News, March 26), the city purchased a vacant Federal Hill lot for $261,741 in 1997, converted it into a park, and sold it at a tax sale three years later for $6164.

• The Historic District Commission has tabled a preliminary proposal to demolish the Engle Tire Building at Broadway and Service Road 7 and to establish a drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts. Opponents describe a proposal for such a generic concept as a bad idea for the West Side thoroughfare.

• On the East Side, the College Hill Neighborhood Association and the Summit Neighborhood Association have battled over expansion, respectively, with Brown University and Miriam Hospital. Critics believe that past efforts to restrict institutional growth have failed, and that the city has been slow in devising a solution. Deller says his department has been rethinking the institutional zone issue, and that a new plan — one drawing distinctions between isolated "campus" settings and institutions located next to residential neighborhoods — could be a few weeks away. (A hotel proposed for Brook Street by Ed Bishop has also attracted concern from neighbors.)

• Community leaders have faulted the city for failing to adequately consider the big picture when it comes to the rich opportunities presented by the area extending from the Capitol Center to Narragansett Landing. The relocation of Interstate 195 in itself will free 35 acres. David P. Riley, co-chair of Friends of India Point Park, faults both the substance and process of the India Point Master Plan. An April 2004 letter by a bevy of community leaders in Fox Point faulted the city for failing to take "a balanced examination of the options for the future of this priceless asset." Riley says the city also stopped holding meetings on the plan for a year "with no notice, no explanation, and no starting up again when we repeatedly requested it." When the public process was restarted in March, "they presented us what they called a final draft that ignored many of our objections . . . I think they are backing off from it — that’s to their credit — but the process has been a big problem." Cicilline characterizes the gripes as part of the "not unusual tension between people who very much want to maintain some or all of that space as open space."

The overall message from Deller, the city’s director of planning and development, is that help is on the way. He hopes that separate plans detailing planning and development goals for each of the city’s 25 neighborhoods will be completed by October 2005. After starting with five neighborhoods as test cases, the effort will accelerate in earnest in November, he says, adding, "It’s taking time simply because there are so many other things going on."

An imminent rewrite of the city’s zoning ordinances will include a revised land development process that would send projects seeking something beyond existing zoning, like the Atwells Avenue condo tower, to the City Plan Commission. Deller says the process would include discussion of tradeoffs, such as allowing greater density in exchange for ground-floor retail, architectural design changes, or other considerations. "We need to change the process so we have a negotiation process with developers," he says, "rather than just giving them carte blanche to go out there and do things." Deller is hopeful that the new zoning plan can be approved by March 2005, calling this an "aggressive, doable schedule."

Deller responds to concerns expressed about the city’s identity by imagining critics in the 1880s decrying the demolition of 18th-century buildings. Considering how the site of the Atwells Avenue condo is a vacant surgical supply center, he wonders what people mean when they talk about its historic character. "We have to be careful to identify and protect what makes us special," Deller adds, "but change also happens."

Perhaps it’s just a matter of time before the Cicilline administration narrows the gap between the current state of affairs and the more thoughtful kind of planning and development approach that many neighborhood activists had reason to expect. In the minds of a number of observers, it would be hard for things to get much worse.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@phx.com