Providence’s development boom: marvel or menace? Although fresh investment is a boon for the city, concerns persist about displacement and the pace of planning BY IAN DONNIS

When crowds of revelers twice jammed parts of downtown in recent weeks, first for the 20th anniversary of as200, and then for the soundsession music festival, it marked a new high point in Providence’s evolution as a small place with some big city panache. With a wave of development starting to unfold around town — more than $2 billion in construction is planned through the next four years — some believe that the new growth will foster this greater sense of vibrancy while also strengthening the local economy.

Count Mayor David N. Cicilline first and foremost among the believers. His administration, citing the cash-strapped city’s dire need for increased revenue, has aggressively moved to court investment and encourage growth while steadily talking up Providence to anyone who will listen. Although Cicilline’s colorful predecessor, the imprisoned Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr., was an equally enthusiastic cheerleader, the newfound level of interest from developers — hailed by Cicilline as the "trust dividend" of his cleaner and more transparent brand of politics — represents a major vote of confidence in the city.

Although it’s just one of a flurry of projects, a 32-story condo tower planned for 110 Westminster St., across from the Arcade, with units priced between $500,000 and $2.5 million, best epitomizes this startling new development landscape. Even with downtown’s accelerating transformation into a residential neighborhood, it’s still hard for many to imagine the willingness of affluent cosmopolitans to drop such major bucks for digs in the city’s old retail core.

If some still wonder where the residents for such high-end developments will come from, other luxury condos are nonetheless planned near Waterplace Park, in the shadow of what will be GTECH’s towering new corporate headquarters, and on Atwells Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Federal Hill. Meanwhile, as the cost of buying a house in Rhode Island has doubled in the last five years, developers have steadily scouted locations and bought up land around Providence, seeking to capitalize on the prevailing sense of momentum. Cicilline points to growth in the city’s tax base — for the first time since 1992, he says — in contending the entire city will benefit.

Not everyone, though, shares the mayor’s unbridled optimism. In fact, many neighborhood activists harbor a kind of free-floating anxiety about how development pressure and unnecessarily rapid change could remake a number of Providence neighborhoods in unpredictable ways, displacing current residents and further squeezing the artists who play an integral role in the city’s national reputation as a creative bastion. There’s also frustration that the city, rather than tapping the swelling level of investment to address such pressing needs as affordable housing, is more interested in raising the tide of development.

SHARE THE WEALTH

A case in point is the concept of inclusionary zoning, a practice in which for-profit developers contribute a percentage of the cost of a project to help create affordable housing. To advocates, including city councilors David Segal and Miguel Luna, such a policy would spread the benefits of Providence’s development boom widely and more equitably. Although his administration did introduce a policy requiring developers receiving a public subsidy to contribute to a housing trust fund, Cicilline suggests the Providence market is not yet strong enough to support inclusionary zoning. Noting that the Annie E. Casey Foundation commissioned a study of how it would work in Providence, the mayor says, "I think we’re getting very close to that . . . I’m certainly very willing to consider anything that will create more affordable housing, and not be an impediment to investment and growth in the city." As it stands, however, says Cicilline, Providence’s real estate market still lags behind that of Boston (which has an inclusionary zoning policy), so cultivating economic growth remains vital.

Herein lies the rub. Although all cities go through periods of boom and bust, Providence is a different place than it was 10, or even five, years ago — far more so than Boston or New York. Rhode Island’s capital has increasingly been discovered since Cianci’s second tenure, striking those accustomed to higher costs elsewhere as an affordable and appealing alternative. Meanwhile, although influential low-rent artists used to be able to evade official scrutiny while living cheaply in forgotten mills, this fabled era came to an abrupt end with the frenzy over fire codes following the Station nightclub fire disaster in 2003. The result of all this is that housing prices have soared, and affordable alternatives have vanished.

In contrast to the slower, more deliberate approach sought by some residents, Cicilline makes it clear that he wants to maintain the current level of growth into the future. Given the current absence of any challengers likely to give him a hard time in the 2006 mayoral race, it’s possible that Providence could look dramatically different by the end of a second Cicilline term in 2010. (Although he declined to speculate during an interview on how much the city’s population might grow over the next 10 years, Cicilline, in a July 8 op-ed in the Providence Journal, noted that the capital’s population was 75,000 greater in 1955, writing, "The path forward, in many ways, is a reconnection with our past.")

Most of those concerned about development recognize the potential benefits that can come with a denser, more populous, and vital Providence — like better public transit and more support for small businesses — and there’s no doubt that the city, like the rest of the state, has long suffered from a lack of good jobs. Yet the fear still lingers that surging development could erode the community’s character, transforming Providence into something resembling a high-priced residential annex to Boston. As Laura Mullen, the artists’ affordable housing liaison for the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, puts it, "Development can often be a very positive thing in terms of revitalizing a neighborhood, but I would be very concerned about the existing population . . . . Gentrification is a very slippery slope. There are lots of positive things that may end up having ripple effects."

As it stands, the big question remains: can Providence get the development balance right between opportunity and risk?