Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

what he in look s the seat always have to check hey if you want one okay thank you s how you doing

hello what yeah I got a lot of calls all week good how are you cold enough for you we do yeah yeah Warren Dave and Steve are coming Gary's uh might show up late if he shows up at all oh yes yes yes me too be public

yes some some changes look at the uh the staff review there's a SE changes you s that's what it mean old

thank you [Music] be a few changes tonight so hear this wasn't able to um then just that don't minut traffic stud is it just mark That's not attending tonight's amazing he said he'll H you late if he comes um but we have four so needs to get here

yeah how are you what's that you forward against this one yeah Steve how are you on paper it's a big improvement over what's there now I'm sure what they want I'm getting your copy too if you needed a copy presid limited not General yeah oh thanks so it could be either condo or right is there anything in the packet that's different than what we receiv and there's a project narrative there that was added today I just got yesterday an email too right that email from that woman yes there's an email from a Community member uh you know

against and the planes were revised actually everything pretty much everything yeah all got submitt yesterday only minor changes since planned uh specific the notes the plants really didn't change he just added notes about soil notes about the FEA regulations notes about building coverage that kind of thing it is by correct as far as zoning goes Yeah by we're pretty much doing a uh a site plan review tonight herea yeah you look sharp huh look sharp nice haircut nice haircut

got so this is that's hello I got this has been before 15 years ago for converting into a prop I want to find out good I okay so you know that's problem nice it was a um they made cinder blocks

there I think it was Salona Salona bricks Salona Cinder yeah um North Providence glass was in there for a while and there were three or four small businesses in there but nobody's in there now I don't think so I haven't been by there yeah I I went by there uh yesterday I saw couple of trucks there but yeah they're kind of like abandon truck from what iosp last Mond hey yeah that's right Hill a friend of mine is in my son's weding um

get some consel people yeah I how you Happy New Year the princi that that's that's the com sorry right good evening everybody um

like to call to order town of North Providence planning board um meeting here at 2000 Smith Street North Providence Rhode Island and um this is the the planning board um like to call the meeting to order today is February 12th 20125 and if you would like to stand and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance that' be great alag United States thank you everybody uh we'll start the meeting off with the roll call and everybody from the planning board who's in attendance state your name for the record lukio warrren richardy David parenti chair KY salvator Council Steve patasse me again Town planner okay we do have four active planning members um present tonight we do have a quorum uh first on the agenda which is would you mind just talking closer to the microphone sorry first on the agenda is the approval of meeting minutes from January 29th uh 2025 um given the short amount of time period between when we last met and today's meeting uh those minutes are still um being prepared so I have to make a motion to dismiss that so we um continue that until the um the minutes are ready the second on the agenda um actually third on the agenda would be a review of the comprehensive uh plan

draft uh the public hearing um our um Town's consultant unfortunately was unable to meet tonight so if you're here for item number three review of the comprehensive plan uh that will be postponed um until the following meeting item number two um is the address is 114 bir Avenue plat 24a Lot 110 Zone residential limited 10 rl10 the applicant is Patriot Builders 14010 Road exit on Rhode Island the description is public hearing application for master plan review with West to combine preliminary plan review for an Adaptive reuse development converting the existing two structures into 48 residential units meeting the maximum number of units per acre permitted by wri for an Adaptive reuse project under Section 203 District use regulations of the zoning audence of North Providence evening Mr chairman good evening can you state your name for the record uh Jack mcgreen um I represent the applicant with law offices located at 21 Garden City Drive cranon Rhode Island 02920 uh this is an application for master plan review like you said with a request that it be uh combined with preliminary plan approval for an Adaptive reuse development converting two existing buildings previously housing a cement company into a residential facility containing 48 units on the applicant is Patriot builds Incorporated I have three

Witnesses Tim Bean a professional engineer with Commonwealth uh Julie Bartlett and architect with zds and of course uh everyone knows Arman ceso um the area in question is located in an rl10 Zone and consists of a single lot identified by the tax assessor as Lot 110 on assessor plat 24a and is located at 114 be Avenue excuse me one sec um the lot is owned by the African Patriot builds Incorporated and Armen C aleso is a sole member the lot has 448 41 ft Frontage on Beard Avenue and is comprised of 3.2 acres under Section 203 Q of the north Province zoning ordinance uh concerning adapter reuse uh the density permitted is not less than 15 units per acre which translates into 48 units uh for this project um Armen intends to convert the two existing buildings into residential housing with building one containing 42 units and building two containing six units um we've submitted a letter from dated January 24th from the Providence water supply board and that should be in your should be in your packet stating that there is sufficient Reserve to service the multi- level residential development um we're still waiting on Dem permits which we've applied for and we're also waiting on the Naran Bay uh commission uh confirming adequate sewer capacity um with that being said I'd like to bring up Julie Bartlett and I think we need to swear our

in I do Julie Bartlett b a r TL TT Julie would you just briefly give your qualifications the board um I work for zds architecture years for almost nine years I've been a licensed architect for eight and I have represented multiple clients at a variety of um town planning and zoning boards throughout New England over the last five years I'd ask the board to recognize Miss B as a architect yes okay could you just briefly go over the um the site in the plan and elevation plans that you use the relable project um thank you uh members of chair Mr chair members of the board for having us here tonight um as as our attorney has indicated this is an Adaptive reuse of two existing structures on property uh a smaller existing underutilized office structure and a larger um existing twostory industrial building both of which have been vacant for some time time and a bit of what we have heard as an isore in the neighborhood um our client is looking to repurpose these and bring a much needed use of housing to the area and we are the proposal is to convert the smaller building to six individual walkup units so three would be accessed from Street grade and they have their own individual access from the exterior that's in the southerly part of the plan and the other the lower level units would be accessed also individually from the exterior from um from the from the parking level the larger building would also have two levels some access from the street and then on um we have 19 access from the

lower parking level and 23 access from Street in both buildings we are raising the lower level basement floor to be above the flood plane at 89 feet which would give us one foot of freeboard above what our flood zone is in we are repurposing the existing cinder block structure um replatting putting new windows in to bring a lot of natural light and uh ventilation and we would be putting providing new RS um adding a very residential character to the structure that does not exist currently um bringing in some lap siding and trim work to connect the connect all three buildings to have a similar sorry we would connect the the relate the two structures with a similar cladding and trim and um one of the other things I wanted to mention I'm sorry this the parking that's shown in front of this is actually has been updated with the Civil plans from when we uh did this rendering so there's actually some grass in front of the building that is not shown in the rendering right now so as mentioned there's a total of 48 units on property 42 in the larger building and six in the smaller with all the parking behind and some green space as well that we're trying to remove some of the asphalt and provide green space in landscaping oh not at this time no you continue with the presentation thank you she it's kindly ask that you guys talk directly into the mic yeah uh good evening for the record uh Timothy

Timothy behan professional engineer with the firm Commonwealth engineers and Consultants Providence Rhode Island yes I do I know Tim's been before this board in several occasions so I just asked that the board recognized expert engineer uh yes we recognized Tim as a professional engineer okay very good I'd like to uh run through the uh site plans very good this sheet is the demolition plan the the existing site as we just heard has two existing buildings they're the ones in brown here uh this is Beard Avenue and this is Ward Avenue uh the existing site has a lot of pavement out there this entire hatched area is all pavement out there or building so this plan is a demolition plan and if you look closely the air the hatch area that has the cross-hatching is all Pavements which are going to be removed from the project the solid hatch here is the proposed parking area so that will be resurfaced with new asphalt so essentially that's just showing the amount of pavement that's out there and the amount of pavement that's going to be uh taken away and if you notice closely as we mentioned uh previously the front of the building is all paved now and that's going to be converted to landscaping and uh lawn the proposed plan it's pretty simple the building's going to stay both buildings the the pavement is in the same spot but

it's a lot smaller it's going to be resurfaced it's going to be striped it's going to be uh graded uh to slope the drainage off to the existing area where it goes now and the drainage does go in the back towards the north this up area up here is an existing Wetland and for storm water storm water has a Redevelopment code which this qualifies for and since we're removing so much Pavements that's enough credit so we don't have to do any additional storm weather storm water measures and we still need the storm water permit from DM but that's why there's no proposed storm water just so much Pavements are being removed from the on the job what else we have uh the next sheet is um the soil erosion control plan and this plan is also going to DM for review and approval since we exceed one acre in sight disturbance so we need a DM permit for the soil erosion control measures but the plan has been designed in accordance with State and uh local standards and lastly I just want to show you the neighborhood close and all the streets leading to uh the site our s's up here and you can see this is Route 246 here Mineral Spring Avenue and Power Road uh surround the site and all these streets lead off into these directions so if you're leaving the site heading south towards Mineral Spring you can go down be Campbell Garfield I mean if you're going towards the Pucket East way you'd go probably down Ward Street and go down finch or Oro or um what is that anderton and if you're going west or north you

you leave the site in this direction go down ly J Boulevard down towards uh 246 and off in that direction other than that let's we can answer any questions if you have any questions thank you that that completes our presentation for now Mr chairman all right thank you I'll leave the um it open to the board to ask uh the applicant any questions that they have um who would like to go first you propose are you proposing any outside lighting in the parking area I'm in ceso c t l l SS o to ask you about outside lighting oh outside lighting is uh if you look at the plan and if you don't mind to speak directly into the mic all around the building has outside lighting and if you look in the parking

area around the island and where it jogs and you see a little Dot and it says um parking lot light typical you'll see that in several areas around the parking area and then it also has light on the building which would softly light up the walkways you know it it it has to be lit people can see where they're going is is this down lighting armor is it down lighting washing the building or is it shining out toward no no no it's it's downloading kits doesn't shine out has the applicant um prepared a photometric study of the exterior lighting proposed for the project for candle no okay okay uh are there any Hazmat issues uh that you are aware of on the site no no no the site is actually in very nice condition um well they don't they don't they don't understand what I mean um the the that yeah we can we can continue um how did you come to that determination well I have my uh engineer on the job and I also had um Ed from natural resources go out and look at all the property and also flag um any Wetlands um buffer zones and at the same time look everything over um

this is prior to me buying it okay has um your engineers provided a report um fi documenting their findings and their conclusions on the soil and any uh existing building materials no no we just had an engineer from natural resources and he came out and um looked at all the soils and he um they also did some uh Tim you did some work with the soils on here uh basically there's something in the Mr chairman are you asking if we did a phase one on the property is that what you're asking well I'm just continuing to ask what Lou was asking and and if there are any hazardous materials on on site the applicant said no and I asked how did he come to that conclusion right and then without so he was explaining that Engineers visited the site and I had asked if there was any documentation or reports that the engineers produced that would allow the applicant to respond in the manner that he did I think what the applicant was stating was his visual observations when he went out to look at the property looked in it didn't see any chemicals but he has not done a soil analysis to determine if there's anything in the soil surrounding the property okay thank you and it's it's it's brick it's not paint so it's uh the the comp the company that was there was a cement company um they make blocks and they do Mason every work um I feel somewhat of a professional myself I've been doing this for over 40

years and I have done an awful lot and I I did an awful lot in this town um I kind of know when I see something I I have a i i have a good eye for myself I mean you can't look at the grounds and see some blocks and you know see some wooden pallets that have been there so long that they decayed um there's nothing wrong with all of that that's that's all natural stuff okay um the place is all asphalted um it's it's not a it's it's it's in good standings is I mean the the building's old the building hasn't been taken care of so it has you know some parts where the roof is missing a little bit and some things like that and that's I guess what they're talking about they don't I don't think understand what you're talking about um so when they say they look at the building and we have some pictures here of the building in its condition now we can show you and that's what I believe that they're they're BAS their opinion on so um which what you hear right now um you you you can see that the you you can see that the the the building has been sort of run down and uh when it needed a broken window fix it wasn't when it needed a garage door fix it wasn't and instead of fixing the garage door they they piled a bunch of pallets full of new blocks and that's how they blocked the door so you couldn't go in you can't move it unless you have a forklift so in a sense it's it's a pretty good thing but

there's nothing wrong with that so to get back to L's question about understanding whether or not there are hazardous materials on on the site do you do you plan to do an environmental study of the soils and of the existing building materials well I I haven't planned on it for the simple reason that I know in my experience that there isn't but um I mean it's you know it's not a big deal to do it just on a phase one environmental you would go to Dem look at the records to see what the history of the building was what was there before was there a gas station for example um I think that's what you're asking for we haven't done that that we could do that if if that's what the board's asking for um but unless that would be a phase one um you wouldn't start drilling you know holes into the ground unless you suspected you would go further and then order a phase two but a phase one would be basically checking the records um At Dem to determine if there was uh you know but this is a cement company it wasn't a jewelry company it wasn't a gas station it wasn't some it wasn't a cleaner dry cleaners it's been a cement company I believe for quite a long time so Mr chairman uh just to follow up on that if a phase one was done by an engineering firm they would tell you if a phase two is required that that's correct okay yeah thank you I will say I did some research on this property uh and it's not currently a regulated facility as far as demm is concerned unlike the Landon Street property for instance which is a regulated facility they know there's toxins that need to be remediated whereas this one it's not thank thank you br L do you have any more questions no okay Warren do you have questions I have

a few questions um I've been on this board longer than anyone here and I remember this property coming uh before us I'm going to say 15 years ago 20 years ago uh for housing put single family housing you talking to the Mike we're going to put single family housing in there if I remember correctly one of the problems we had over there was um the I believe it's the runoff from Gillan plat and what happened was this the town spent a great deal of time and money having that engineered a few years ago and it has alleviated most of the problems in the Gillan plat are you aware of any problems on this property with any water uh in any of the last 10 years I know you haven't had possession I've been looking at it for for that long but are you aware of any problems with water um I I am not aware of any problems with water on the property um uh we don't have a public hearing yet ma'am I'd like to just ask you kindly to save your comments for the public hearing thank you uh um the fellow I bought it off I have known for he's he's been a Maj you don't know the history of the property going back that far I'm not even hear you don't know the history of the property going back that far that's what I was saying um the fellow that I bought the property from I've known probably 40 45 years he's a mason in the town okay he he he is I think a pretty respectable guy and I spoke with him lently I've been there

many of times over the last pretty close to a little over a year since we got involved um and and I spoke with him on this okay and he showed me around the properties um and there's not an indication of water um on the property and I've been there in a couple of pretty good rainstorms um and I want to say that I I did not see any I see the water that's that's there and couple of Puddles and stuff because of the low and highs in the ground and that type of stuff can I ask if um you wouldn't mind having your your your um civil engineer uh come up and speak to the board about the storm water conditions on the site and any ground uh water conditions the the issue with excess water is associated with a flood plane that's uh there's a stream behind to the north of the subject site yep and in the Wetland there there's a stream and it goes Downstream few hundred feet and goes into some sort of culbert system which travels under the roadways in the town and dumps down towards the Stop and Shop so there's a big pipe underground leading that direction and during heavy heavy big storm events that area does have a flood zone associated with it and that is on the FEMA map and that's on our plan as well and we're required by state law to have all living spaces above that which we have done for this project thank you I got a couple of other questions

too uh one was the uh the layout I looked at it initially and I saw the high parking lot in the back of the building but you you you're forcing people to walk around the building to to the entrance on the side on the North side there's some walking around the building for some of the people in pot of the fund okay have you thought about putting a bridge so that people on the second floor can just walk in that way rather than walk down and and up just a suggestion maybe your architect can explain the pedestrian traffic on on the site from parking lot to she actually is the designer so maybe better care from her so the from the parking in the back we have a rear ramp and Lobby from the parking level and so prime it is assumed that anyone who lives here would come from the parking level to enter the building into the lobby which is in red on my plan right here and then from that Lobby there's access to a stair that brings you directly upstairs this is also our level that would have the type a required accessible unit that we would need um with the ramp as well the building does as two stories does not require an elevator so there is access from the street for anyone who might walk or take a bike but it is assumed that most people would come in from the back and take into the lobby and take the stair upstairs to their unit so you can go either way okay but that's that's an architectural thing that you guess yeah but I just I just wanted to answer that you can go either way I just thought it would be better coming from her yeah it was and um one other one other comment I have and that is the capacity um I think you had

42 units was it and how many of them totally 48 48 and the number of uh 48 units um which would it be um a combination of one two in studio units um as a as a taxpayer in this town and all of us are we're always worried about expenses and um with two bedroom with two bedrooms in a unit it usually means children in there uh and that means a burden on the school department again or and that's that that's not a standard for review of application before the living board okay that's it I'd like to just comment that in addition a lot of people are using two-bedroom units for dens and offices because of the amount of work from home that people are doing right now so the two-bedroom or OnePlus Den is a very common um apartment or condo that people are renting and purchasing in current times with the Chang that have happened since CO as well so thank you that's that was your last question yeah that's it Steve do you have any questions yes I do um couple of questions are these condos or apartments what I well I I build everything as condos um just for our investment okay okay because an apartment building would have

to be sold as an iety and you have to really find the right buyer but if you make them as condos you can sell them individually and because of their sizes they be a real great number where people can really afford them uh because they're they're not something big in 3504 450,000 they're nowhere near that so they they accommodate the people today and they accommodate a sale that somebody could buy in the future so you haven't set any prices yet rentals no have you said any pric no no no we're not selling them you're not selling them no okay no that was my because the um the housing today as if you even seen Channel 10 this morning you would have seen how what a big demand it is I have many other um condo projects in North Providence and I rent them and if someone moves out we advertise it it's it's rented that day because it's such a demand for it so when we build them at the size we're building them we're giving people a great deal the rents on astronomical so we're not building 1,200 square feet where you're going to come in and pay 25 2600 you'll be in here for a whole lot less money than that you can afford it that's that's the idea of what we're doing with this new law that was passed in January okay thank you did you did you do a traffic study well I I didn't do a traffic study um because again I've been in here for doing this for many many years okay and I have subdivisions that go funnel out into one

road um there's actually 16 different ways out of here um you know uh excuse me excuse me a guys's a minute you'll get your chance I won't do that when you're talking again May the applicant address the board rather than the the public at I just won't do that when they're talking we appreciate it thank you and if everybody can just kindly basically you pull out down until the public hearing thank you when when you pull out of here you pull on to uh B Avenue and immediately is an intersection with Ward you can go to the left you can go down the power road pcket you can take on what on on W Avenue you can take probably six different streets out to middle spring or towards pcket you can go out to the right and there's another enormous around the street so here's the property here's um Route 146 middle Spring Avenue how Road like and this is chow Street of 246 right here I mean if you look at the streets of where you go there's 16 of them so it just depends if you want to go towards Lincoln get on the highway at 246 or if you want to go middle spring Power Road or if you want to come out take a right on to ch's uh to Middle spring take a left of child Street to go down or go up middle Spring Avenue and pick up 146 there's there's just an enormous amount of ways to go depends which direction you want to go in I appreciate that but I would have liked to see a study tonight that's just me well if if in fact everybody had to get out at once you would have two cars on each Street if they all left exactly

the same time just think of how many roads there are well you're probably going to add about 75 cars am I right no no I'm wrong okay no we're not looking tell me uh tell me how many cars you looking I think we're looking more at U we need one parking place per unit That's the Law that's that's the law M Mr chairman if I may just a traffic study is generally due at preliminary plans so if the planning board wants a traffic study they can require one oh I I I I understand so we're only at Master just talking about it that's all I I I I'll tell you my my client's thought process because there was so many means of Ingress and egress out of this property quite frankly we thought that the need for uh traffic study was an Overkill but if that's what the board is requesting then then that's what we'll do well I I'd like to see one and I'd like to see Dave Deo here our engineer here when you present it so would you present a traffic study yeah I'd like to have him here if there's questions Mr chairman again the planning board can require a peer review right which you you've done before on other projects right so including on storm water management on traffic Mr Deo before you come back would peerreview them and perhaps be invited to the meeting to discuss it correct do you have any more uh no questions no okay um I have a I have a couple for the for the applicant um in regarding the um the building the two structures that are on the property are there any modifications to the footprint of either

one of the buildings yeah no thank you um the architect did say that the first floor of the larger building is being is being raised up above the the flood plane is that correct it'll be one foot over as the law calls it to be okay both both buildings lower level floor will be raised to to accommodate the flood plane okay and in in height of the overall massing of the building does that does that change the um the elevation of the the floors above and then yes and then the roof line as well correct and that's that is reflected in our package that was submitted it we have a section that was provided that shows the okay on a site plan right here staff has confirmed that it meets the 35 foot height requirement for RL 10 zones thank you Brent okay um regarding the the the layout of the of the site um there appears to be only one access in and one which also there there appears to be only one vehicular access in and out of the the site and on is that an existing curb cut is there even a curb there I'm not sure for the record Timothy ban uh yes that is the existing curb cut and it's going to remain okay and that with allows for two-way traffic yes that's standard 24 foot wide aisle okay um has the applicant or the engineering

team given any um thought in adding a second way vehicular way in and out of the site um potentially from the the East End of the site onto Dickinson in addition in addition to the vehicular access off of beard no no we haven't there's only what do we have 65 parking spaces okay okay okay thank you do you guys have anything else to add to your presentation before we open it up to the public no okay um so before we open it up for thank you very much for your for your presentation um actually you know I have what I'm sorry um for the architect looking at the the floor plans it it there does seem to be a number of uh units that have no access to Natural daylight um which struck me as odd can you walk me through um the the intent behind that and whether or not that's applicable per the residential code or whether or not a redesign would need to be done in order to meet so ironically the code does allow for no windows it is not something that you would want to do but we if you're doing mechanical ventilation Etc there's other there's other means however there is an error in this and in this plan there is a window in the corner of the one

bedroom in here so there would be a window into this corner unit and there would be a window into this one bedroom unit as well the utility is what's backed up against the retaining wall so there would be no windows there and then we have the windows that we're adding on the opposite side so the intent is not for there to be zero windows in any unit there might be no windows in one of the bedrooms of an interior bedroom which is allowed by code technically if the room is the unappropriate side then you have artificial light and mechanical ventilation okay I I still see maybe one more unit that will not have access to Daylight yep that guy right there put your pen down them and then on the um yeah this is first floor it looks like so these these two we've satisfied this is the the inside corner unit um that might trigger a modification um we might jog the floor plan such as so to accommodate a window into that corner unit okay um it may be too soon to ask this but does does the project team feel comfortable that modifications to the interior layout in order for the um for the for the architectural design to meet building code and Life Safety Code will that render a change it do you think that will render a change in number of units that this current footprint can support I think if anything it would maybe reduce a two-bedroom to a one-bedroom okay is potentially the modification but the unit count is not intended to change we have done a study of a third of the units confirming layout of bathrooms kitchens utility rooms Etc bedrooms within within each

within some of the units and that is how we determined that we felt that this was the appropriate unit count for the building okay um and on the the exterior so thank thank you very much for providing um an exterior rendering um I would I would think that you would call call that conceptual rendering for for right now um I do appreciate the the application of of residential materials on the on the on the building um however the um has there been any thought in in maybe um doing something a little bit more with the finra to help to help break up the the scale of the building it is a very long building um across the street we have single family homes um and I was wondering if any consideration in in breaking up the scale of the building with uh maybe different materials or different colors is is a consideration for the team I think we can take a look at that as we're moving into our or or may yeah maybe change each of the masses has some different color there's a you know it's maybe it's all lap but it's two different tones of blue or maybe there's two different window types that happen throughout the building I think that that's certainly something we can consider or call a little in Peaks just an articulation of like there's we'll do like some kind of a medallion of some sort trim trim work we can add we can certainly look it into something aesthetically pleasing that addresses the the length of the building and its and its presence on the yes no we can totally do that we did do that to some other building manela Street and everybody actually ended up liking it

very much so yes we can do that okay thanks can I ask ke a question oh yeah well sorry keep you up here go ahead Kelly um under the Adaptive use is there a minimum size on on units based on Studio one bedroom two bedroom three bedroom well there's a minimum housing requirement which is really small much smaller than the these so no the what what the Adaptive re statute talks about is the density um per acre and the only comment I have and I I don't want to give this advice tonight but there is a discussion in the statute about low and moderate income housing units that you know I don't you know I don't want to give that advice tonight I want to look at it more closely um because North Providence is a little bit different than other communities in terms of LMI but um I just want to bring it to your attention that I'm going to look at that as though there may be a requirement is that what you're implying okay so the answer is the units could be even smaller than this under minimum housing requirements but they're allowed 15 units per acre under an Adaptive reuse project we we have designed micro units in the past and while I don't think that's the right application for this building it is it is allowable per code to do like 250 sare foot Apartments they are studio and very tiny and but it's that's not what we're doing here so more of an urban condition I'm just saying as side I just spoke with my client and he wouldn't be surprised that many yeah I'm not I don't know what the

town desires you know so I I don't want to give that advice tonight thank you thank you okay so um we will open up the public hearing um before before we we do so um there are many of you here in the audience which our board definitely appreciates um we think that uh input from the community just assists in the process um that that our board ad administers I kindly ask for everyone to um listen to your community members comments and if that person asks a question or has a comment that is like the comment that you would like to say we we will address that um so just I'm just asking for um a team effort here in in efficiency in in listening to the community's comments um the applicant here is requesting a master plan and preliminary plan um approval tonight that is a request that's not a requirement of this board to grant that request typically or in the past master plan approval is a concept and the applicant presents a concept in Land Development and the board renders an opinion on whether or not that concept meets the comprehensive plan in line

with the town zoning ordinance the second step would be either going to the zoning board and or coming back to this board for preliminary it's kind of backwards master plan goes before preliminary preliminary presentation is when the site design is further developed with engineering of the site um and um architecturally from the exterior the the the project is further more developed that's a sec that's the second step the third step would be a final approval that could be granted by this board if we deem so or it could be also handled administratively by the town planning officer in addition to those steps there is a fire review Life Safety review by the town and a building department review by the town's building department in addition to all those Town approvals there are this project is also subject to State approvals um regarding the um storm water and um Wetlands you guys have to go for wetlands and and a wetland um uh application those those steps are administered by Rhode Island demem so thank you for listening to all of that what I'm trying to say is tonight is not the only night that this

project has in its approval process so with that we'll open up the public hearing it is 654 p.m. good evening can you state your name for the record Dino odello Au UT T IE l l o North Providence Town Council president I'm also the councilman at large so I represent the whole town with me is Stephano fagetti councilman District 2 and Chuck POA councilman District 2 so they both represent the area that we're discussing to tonight um I would just like to speak on behalf of the Town Council and be on behalf of the many residents that are here tonight that we are adamantly opposed to this project um we don't think the lot calls for that um you know I remember as a kid riding my bike down Garfield Street which be would be the back entrance you could barely fit two cars down it let alone adding 75 more cars on onto that street um I know of recently a developer that walked away from the project due to environmental issues so I think you need to require a traffic study that should be seen now I think there needs to be a class one and class two environmental study because I know there's environmental issues with that property and um I think especially if you're going to have children living in there there's proposed two bedrooms you know that's going to be a burden on our school department you don't want to put children in A Place With No

environmental study done on the uh soil so again I know myself I know Stephano and Chuck want to speak but we are opposed to this project um that project that property has been looked at dozens of time in my time on the council and there's always environmental issues and this and that so again I'd like to State my opposition to it thank you thank you uh thank you um try not to Echo what Dino said but um I totally agree that before this moves any forward any any uh any additional steps forward for this applicant they're asking for your approval of something you should ask that they provide the experts so that you're satisfied and that they're satisfied Environmental Studies water runoff issues all in that area um traffic studies you know din know talked about being in that area uh about traffic I grew up in that area I still live in that area I remember riding my bike or walking by on Ward Street with my friends looking in the back of that property wasn't just concrete blocks car parts tires so we we can talk about experts and I do think you should require them but the people out here have a better understanding of what that property is than what has been presented here tonight I don't think that the presentation is um uh persuasive at all with regard to those issues there there is nothing to rely on other than eyeball assessments um when people who have lived there for 40 50 years have seen with their own eyes what sort of environmental hazards have been there also uh nobody talked about uh the applicant was kind enough to to point

out um that the building itself is in disrepair and he's right about that but what comes with disre repared buildings and uh buildings that are not occupied rodent issues before anything happens in there before they start doing any work in there I would like to know what kind of impact is it going to draw rodents into the uh neighborhood that's going to cause issues for the residents behind me uh I think these are all uh burdens for the applicant and before anything moves forward this board should be satisfied that all these boxes are checked off and and you know you're going to hear a lot about it tonight I'm sure you can see it by the maps it really does not fit the qual the the neighborhood it's it's you're you're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole so I could go on and talk a lot I know that the residents have a lot more to say than I do um but uh um I do think that this board should proceed very cautiously and make sure that this development crosses all the tees that's all the eyes um and make sure that there are no dilar effects that are going to be on this neighborhood thank you thank you good evening I'm not going to uh take much of your time I know there's a lot of people people from the neighborhood that want to speak and have some very good information I just think another thing that should be added or should be requested is a uh assessment from the fire department Beav there's only three or four houses on that end of Beav they're talking one mean one means coming in on be AV to that property I know what it is to drive fire reperat us I was a firefighter for 31 years if you ever have an emergency in that building around that building you're going to have major Maj issues with accessibility which is going to cause ill effect on people in the neighborhood like I said I'm not going

to take much of your time but I think also a study from the fire department um should be required amongst everything else that they've spoke about than you your time thank you gentlemen thank you gentlemen um so um trying to take copious notes again to to try to um keep this process efficient uh we did hear um from the council uh men members who are present tonight that um their recommendation would be for a traffic study phase one and possibly phase two assessment uh rodent Pest Control Fire Department a assessment of the site plan uh are there any members in the public who would like to come up and speak ladies first and um yeah that's a that's a great Point um Warren you you have been on this board a while I will ask that um everybody gets uh their fair share at the microphone um one time please thank you say your name for the record jod olivo o l i v o good evening my name is jod olivo and my husband Steve and I have lived on Garfield Street for over 30 years we live one street over from the property on 114 be Avenue I'm here tonight to voice a few of our concerns first traffic on Garfield Street has always been busy cars speed and cut through our neighborhood from Power Road in puet and Mineral Spring to get to 146 North there are speed bumps we've tried to get extra

speed bumps for the safety of our students and our kids we've been denied and several streets do have them the stop signs are at almost every single Corner which also suggests that the amount of cars that are speeding and cutting through our neighborhood is exponential with the additional 48 residential units which unfortunately is the maximum number of units permitted for that area the number of cars and our already narrow streets will increase potentially from 48 to 96 additional cars especially hearing that their two-bedroom could be four adults could be four cars I have grown children they have several Vehicles second our house on um Garfield Street is built on the former Gillan Pond during our 30 years we have noticed that our property is already sinking the underground water has seeped through our foundation and has caused flooding in our basement if this land on 114 Beed is filled in for these residential units we are concerned that the water that usually floods 114 Beed will further be diverted to our property and cause further damage finally we are also concerned with the amount of water and sewerage from these units and want to be assured that our sewer lines would be upgraded to keep up with this increased demand we had to contact North Providence Public Works numerous times over the years to snake out our sewer lines as they get clogged in the street causing backups into our ba basements thank you for listening and I hope you take these concerns with your consideration thank you thank you

Mr chairman good evening members of the board my name is Anthony Costello I reside at 43 Dickinson AV and I'm butter like to thank my neighbors for turning out tonight my only comment is the current site um while anything would be an upgrade to it I just urge that the project is done in its entirety to the letter of the law the current site right now the best I can describe it is resembles something in between where Fred Flintstone worked in Bedrock and a landfill it's it's a mess I walk by it all the time um I think there's going to be a lot of work that's going to be need to done done there I do uh actually want to thank the applicant for presenting a plant uh my family is has a family member who's going through struggles finding affordable housing I think there's a definite need for it but there's also a definite need to protect the environment and that neighborhood I think it's going to have a tremend mendous impact on those three or four houses at the tail end of be have and as Mr Pollock mentioned getting emergency vehicles in and out of there with just one entrance and exit could be a concern thank you very much for your time thank you sure hi state your name for the board hi I'm Caitlyn cabol c b r a l I'm a lifelong resident of North Providence I've lived on Dorman Avenue my whole life my mom has lived on Dorman Avenue her whole life my sister lives next door I live across the street from my parents at one point my grandfather's family owned the whole street and sold it off so I have a lot of um history in the neighborhood and um I have a 10-year-old an eight-year-old and a 5-year-old and let me tell you there is a reason why Mr ceso didn't do a traffic study that is because it would impact him negatively

by presenting it to the board my sister's car was total on the street a couple of years ago someone has been hit on the street and my daughter was almost run over on our street because the amount of traffic is insane in that neighborhood I walk all the time with my kids I've seen many of these people out are behind me I see them and I'm sure they've heard me yell move over there's a car coming it's speeding by because they drive like maniacs down the street it's there's already too much traffic on in this area to but something like this in this area would be very very negative negative detrimentally to the neighborhood on top of that the the traffic is so bad that my husband and myself have actually petitioned the street got votes to put the speed bump on Dorman Avenue after my daughter was almost hit by a car and run over um I I think maybe that was actually presented to this board by attorney behind me um to do that so we did have to get a speed bump for the reason of the of traffic in the in the area um sorry I wasn't planning on speaking tonight so I apologize a good um I also agree with attorney family GL in that there are errors in their plans that have been presented to you I've heard you know how many parking spots 48 75 it seems that they're not aware of that they they're not looking into environmental they're not looking into the water runoff at one point that whole area was a swamp like there there are issues in that area already with flooding when it rains the people on Loi Boulevard they all have dumpsters in their driveway because their basements are all flooded so the water runoff is a huge issue and doing something like this is just going to make an even bigger issue for the residents of the neighborhood and if they want I agree that something needs to be done to the property this is not it this is not what needs to be done in this neighborhood thank you thank you

my name is Gina Marini my family own that building I think I know that site better than anybody in this room because my family bought that in 1978 and I've been working there since 1978 that building was never uh they never made block there I think they stopped in 75 a Portuguese guy bought it tried it couldn't do it from 76 to 78 was abandoned my brother Frank Marini who sold the business uh property to that man last month which is okay um we bought it was in disarray we bought we fixed it all up that was used as a masonary company since 1978 we sted all our staging our block and everything else we never made block block was never made there since 1975 number one number two I know that site better than anybody because I drove down there every single day and I had to go on the back to the station room to load my truck with scaffolding and Plank and this and that and when it rained hard I would go to about a foot of water every single time we had to actually put a bre at the top of the driveway otherwise the water would be a gushing down the hill it was incredible my truck would get a foot of water that being said because the drainage was no good we never fixed it we we tried but it didn't work what I'm saying is I think not all these uh fam that he wants to makeing which fine he paid a lot of money for the property the guy's a very nice man but so many people that stop sign is bad they they just want and I'm one of them I run that stop sign more than anybody and my wife keeps telling me and one of these days I'm want to hit a car I'm going to get a and it's that's my fault but it is what it is I do what I do but by adding all

these people it's only going to make it worse number one I think houses you want to build eight or nine houses eight or nine families fine in that area what is that 16 20 people I could go for I live right across the street I built a white brick house that's my house I gotta look at that more than anybody in this room I got the worst spot me CU I wanted to build it over there because when we bought the property the lane across the street came with the property so I took a lot my brother Larry got rest of Soul he passed away gave me three lots and I took I built my house there in 1987 and I love it it's set up the way I want it but with all these added people added cars this that and the other it's it's not a good thing houses fine you minimize the people I think I can go for that this no way because I'm the one is got to look at it and I'm opposed to it I'm sorry thank you hi hi please state your name for the record lesie corner Co NE okay can you also include your address as well sure it's 22 Campell AV and I've been a longtime resident there I've been at my house there for over 50 years and we still have some residents that have in that same neighborhood that have been there longer than I have so I know the street in the area very well because we were kids um

we used to play in that area so this is a picture of that area just is two years ago when it got flooded when it gets flooded you can almost use it as a lake because the thing is in in fact right here is just all the back pot I if you can see it but it gets so flooded that it's just unbearable like how how everything is in the back there so that with that being said too um I know they had mentioned that these units are not condos but they are units that um what our concern is is that if they're lowincome housing or if they can even be Section 8 housing the safety of our neighborhood because our neighborhood right now we haven't had any issues no problems there's not been any crimes there not been anything and I'm not saying because people live in low income housing that's what kind of people you're going to get we're just concerned about safety as well if these are going to be lowincome houses and then if people are going to be in the are or if they're going to section out the the housing you know what kind of and forgive this word riff raff we're going to get into the neighborhood so that's another big concern that I know maybe people don't want to talk about but I know they think about it and they don't want to mention it so there he goes I mentioned the elephant in the room so so do you have anything to add so but again we are OPP POS of this development so I just wanted to concern that my my thank you thank you

good evening say name your address please yes my name is Mary Lou petruci P Ru CCI and I live at 80 Meadow Road in North Providence and I'll be very brief because what I'm going to say is just going to dovetail with a few of the remarks that were made uh my backyard um AB buts the wetlands which abots this property that is being looked at for development and I will tell you that over the last year the um situation with the water has completely changed now the property has been in my family for 50 years I've lived there for most of the 50 years and you know we it was described earlier about how it would uh flow through uh into a pipe that would go down essentially into Canada Pond but what's happened is that there has been like this major like almost like a holding area I'm not sure why I've asked and I've heard something about some development up in Lincoln uh Twin Rivers Paving a parking lot which diverted the Border but all I'm saying is that um I would really just ask that before any further um decisions made that there be some kind of a study of the water because along with what everybody else has already said which I've experienced but there's also some major changes that have taken place thank you very much for your time thank you hello uh Jeff cabol 7D Dorman Avenue uh thanks for allowing us to have a voice here tonight um what everything on my list has already been mentioned multiple times by folks behind me Neighbors in the neighborhood uh two things I'll point out property valuations um I would imagine that homes

are most likely value of homes are going go down in the immediate area of where this development is going to be uh put together you know I'm a realtor this is what I do for a living so I spend a lot of time putting together valuations of properties um the other thing I would mention is uh just for clarification these units are going to be rented not sold can I ask a question uh you can ask the board and and a after the public hearing um was it the the applicant can respond to most of these questions so I think the gist of it was that there it's it's going to be rental rental uh properties right um that's really all I wanted to say you know the with I will comment on the speed bumps in the neighborhood it's to the point where my neighbor had to install poles in the front of his house where the speed bump is because the cars are driving up on his lawn to go around the speed bumps so you know he's he's now passed away so I'm not sure who's going to maintain that I might have to go out there and maintain the poles for his wife so that they're not driving on the Lawns um it's it's just ridiculous where we can't even have our kids ride our ride their bikes you know you want to you know have a family your children grow up you can't go outside throw a ball around it's it's not like it used to be I I don't know what it was like back in the day but I would imagine it's a little bit different than now where people just disrespect you know your rights but that's really it thank you can you please just spell your last name cab r a l 70 Dorman ask thank you thank you good evening thank you for allowing all of these neighbors to voice their concerns here today thanks councilman for their input as well I just wanted to say that I'm always amazed I'm sorry Mary lion 68 beard F

I'm always amazed when people from outside the neighborhood come in and they think that there's not traffic be at Avenue you can barely get one car by you have to pull to the side of the road be courteous let somebody else pass we're talking about another 65 75 cars my street is a Cutthroat from Mineral Spring Avenue to La Hoy out through CHS that alone is going to make traffic a nightmare all of the residents behind me their concerns with neighborhood traffic is true they experience it every single day that alone is one of the reasons all of these Neighbors are opposing this thank you for your time thank you good evening my name is Paul D Court d c o r te I live at 88 Garfield Street I've been there for 29 years I've been in front of the Town Council I've been in front of everybody trying to get speed bumps on my street I live in between between Ward and Franklin couple of things that I'd like to say is I'd like to invite anyone of you to come sit in my driveway for a few hours maybe a day just come sit in it I don't care park the car have a coffee whatever I want you to see what goes on I'm not going to kill you with the

traffic stuff because apparently people that don't live in the neighborhood don't have a clue they just think well it's probably not that bad well it's terrible my daughter got out of the car the other day she almost got hit by a car that's how bad it is the second thing I'd like to ask is before you guys approve anything I would like for you guys to make sure that they come up with all the stuff that they're supposed to come up with anything that you guys uh ask for a study I think it all needs to be approved and brought forth before it goes even further because without the studies what do you do you just say yeah okay we're going to hand it over and we're going to keep it going why are we going to keep it going if the studies prove that you shouldn't do it let's not do it men's invested money I'm sorry he invested money in a property that floods I was part of FEMA in N uh in 2012 myself and John panori got FEMA involved with uh White House's office I was going to make the town pay for an $80,000 H&H study Charlie wasn't having it so we got people involved and that's when FEMA came through to redo all the maps that property still in a flood zone that's a problem thank you very much thank you hello my name is Maria Le that's l e a n d r o and I live at 80 Garfield Street very close to the corner of Ward and I don't like to speak in public but I'm going to because this is really bothering me we have lived there

for 44 years and I still live in the home that I was raised in and my mother still owns the home my father God Rest the soul has passed away away but I had to call 911 and the fire truck couldn't get down my street because there's so many cars parked in the roads because there's too many cars per household they're saying there's 48 apartments that are going to be built but they said there's only 65 parking spaces which means if each household has two vehicles there are going to be cars parked on the street and there those streets are so narrow they can't get through I filed a complaint with councilman um imari and he actually helped me so now Garfield Street at the top of the road is Park on one side only specifically because of my issue with the fire trucks couldn't even get through when I needed them also when it comes to flooding we didn't have the flooding that we have now it's gotten worse to a point last year I had to spend $20,000 to put in French drains in my basement because of the flooding I now have three sub pumps in my basement because of the flooding I didn't have this problem growing up we never had this problem and they're going to have to do uh demolition we also had to spend a lot of money because we were getting rodents and we had to get rid of them they're not coming from my house they're coming from outside and they're trying to hide for the winter

and they're trying to get away from the cold they're coming from outside those are wood wetlands and they're full of woods there are problems out there that need to be cleaned up those rodents I don't need more coming around my backyard I have traps to try to catch them in the yard and we have caught them they're out there but nobody cares and they need to be cleaned up okay that's it for me thank you thank you pal Harrison 81 beara ha Thomas Harrison h a RR ISO N I live at 81 Beav I live there for 29 years and like everybody else behind me traffic has been an issue there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood nobody stops at any stop signs people fly down the road we've complained to the May a numerous times nothing's been done about it now for these this building to be built he's saying 48 residential units according to your regs it's two cars per unit that's 96 cars he's got a parking lot for 65 cars cars are going to be parked on the street it just you just can't be doing that can I stop you for for a moment Brent is that what is the parking requirement for a adaptive reuse for adaptive reuse is one per unit one one per unit one per unit nobody has you're going to have uh married couples are going to have two cars for the regulations for for an Adaptive reuse which this project falls under the law states that one parking

space per unit is the minimum and that's a state law that's not a town law so we don't have uh any say so what's the purpose of having regulations if that doesn't work the state supersedes any Town regulations we have and as for the flooding there's no drainage on Beav so all the water goes down to the end and into that APLE so that does flood every year enough said thank you good evening my name is James Piccolo Piccolo I live at 47 be Avenue and I know everybody all my neighbors had already mentioned the traffic issue I live smack dab in the middle of Beav I have a slow children's sign in front of my house and it seems like everybody goes 60 down my street I have I have a dog just like many of my neighbors do and I'm always outside with them walking them I have to pull them off the road because I feel like they might get hit by a car um and one thing that wasn't mentioned you guys are probably all aware of it be a comes to a dead end where that property is going to be there's only one way out there's one stop sign on Beard Avenue and it meets Ward so everybody just comes straight down without stopping and that's pretty much all I have to say thank you thank you one the letter that I got said that 48 units per one acre if I'm not mistaken there's three Acres there is this phase one and phase two is going to come in

three years they're going to build another 48 on another acre and then face three Another 48 I don't know is that possible on that land this property's maxed out at 48 they're allowed the Adaptive reuse law that the state passed allows 15 units per acre so they'd be maxed that they wouldn't be able to so only 48 total whole property unless the state somehow changes the law in the future you can't build no more 48 on the whole property the existing law one acre I know there's three acres 3.2 AC I just concerned thank you good evening I'm Michael Mazy I live at 83 bav m a z zi I'm also concerned about the traffic also and I live right there right next door and the traffic's unbelievable there I we seen accidents we seen we we a lot of stuff that is just terrible there it just not good intersection at all glad have to say thank you hi thank you my name is Patricia Bean be a g en I live at 84 beard so my house is diagonally directly across from the property I don't want to be redundant about the traffic and I just want you to know that I'm a retired nurse so I'm home every day and I know how bad the traffic is over there they speed down the street they go through that four-way stop sign like it's nobody's business I see families walking their kids walking their dogs constantly

and it's really a safety issue having all that property being built there and all those extra people and cars I don't know how that four-way stop is going to handle all of that I've only lived there eight years unlike many of my neighbors but it's still my home and I hope you just take that into consideration that we're all concerned about the safety of all of us in the neighborhood and I wish you would just take a ride by there and just see you know just how it is over there and I hope that you know you ask them to do everything that you've proposed the traffic study the Dem study all of that because that's going to affect us and our small neighborhood down the line and it's not fair to us and we should have a say in all of this so that's it can you please just repeat your address 84 beard 8 so I live directly diagonal from that property thank you and I'm also worried about you know you talk about the parking for all these people if that parking lot doesn't hold the families that live there they're going to be parking alongside my my house right there and I don't I wouldn't appreciate that at all not only that but to block traffic too so that's all I have to say thank you so much thank you hello my name is Megan farias f a r i a and I live at 66 Dorman AV um and my sister-in-law also lives with uh with us um my car got totaled on the street a couple years ago my husband has then for

um put up cameras outside so we have evidence of people speeding through our four-way stop sign daily we've called the cops cops have sat out our house numerous times they just don't sit between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. when that traffic they're cutting through Mineral Spring to get to that Power Road um so I have videos that I can show um many videos also I live on a corner right at the four-way stop sign so I see everything I live across from from a three tenament that three tenament has about 8 to 10 cars three or four of them which stay on the road so I can only imagine what 48 Apartments is going to do to that neighborhood um and that's all I really wanted to say so thank you thank you I don't even know what I'm going to look at can I see what they look like I got to look at are the neighbors able to see these plans yes they they are uh May the applicant can you come up and swing them around please sorry to come up again and first I'll apologize for my fiery presentation um I'm passionate because I

understand what they're feeling so I apologize if I was a little too fiery um second I think we've heard loud and clear from the neighbors here uh nothing stops you from requiring these these uh studies to be done before we move forward and again I would encourage that that's exactly what we do let's let's require it right now um I would ask you to do that um and also I can't remember if the chairman uh included it but I I would like a a water drainage study as well if you would consider that um and again reiterate that I think that should be done now before we move any further thank you thank you thanks Maria sigus z g s z igas uh mostly my questions everybody has done the traffic does the town have enough resources to maintain 48 extra units in the area the fire department at marville when they are on call we still have to wait for the ones to come from Cale it's doesn't take that long but I can hear the fire truck for quite a while so if we have 48 units we have a minimum of extra individuals in the area that will need to use those resources also who's going to clean the snow in that lot is it going to be by the company or is it going to be on the town to expend their services for snow cleaning also for

trash collection how will the trash collection be addressed within the those 48 units that are there also will the sewer have the capacity we all heard about the problems with the flooding that will require extended sewer lines to be passed through the area which will impact the environment so demm report is extremely needed Naran at Bay report is also very needed because I'm not sure that they can go well enough through an area that it can get that flooded on the flooded area I've seen it where you don't even know there's debris in the lot it can flood that high the other problem access there are not 16 ways there are three ways when you come out of the lot you take a left and then you go right left or forward that's the direct access if the place has to be reached by fire department also only has those ways to get in the air um the street that is directly in front work is AC pass through between Pak and North prus that's where the traffic problem is it is also fairly narrow so that again a fire truck going through there will have problems making the 90 degree turn from Ward into Bird Street that will be very hard on a fire truck especially I think we mentioned the 24 foot wide access that will be hard again on the fire truck if the is not clean properly for the snow you're going to have the trucks maneuvering and delaying emergency response the rats I'm sure there's plenty of other animals in there a right now in there there's also maybe one

coyote that I've seen there's deer there's turkeys but there's also Birds of Prey those birds of prey are the ones that are controlling the rat population that crosses on the street Street by moving all of that all these animals are going to be coming into the neighborhood and directly into the houses in the neighborhood so if they stay there or if they move further and the birds of prey and all that remain in the property we have a way of controlling a natural way of controlling some of the Rat population which rats are all over the city pavement the area is paved but it is not fully paved it is fully cracked because there's a lot of trees in the area they are the ones who are maintaining the property those trees help with the drainage and that the plan does not show that many of trees remaining talks about landscaping and all that again we will be getting a lot more runoff coming through the cars that are parked there and everything else the brake Factory silica and sulfur dioxide are common products used in the making of bricks at the time that the bricks were being made in there there was no environmental regulations all that material has to be in the soil what's on top right now old cars junk whatever the neighborhood dumped in the air whatever the prior owners trucked in the air if you look at the property there's a lot of products that have been running off into the soil this is not just a matter of cleaning the material has run off into the water has been on top of that trash and it has drained through the cracked

Pavements so definitely that will also require the studies that you talked about and uh I think that's me that's that that's it for now everything else has been addressed by my neighbors thank you thank you can you please just say ma'am did you get ma'am what was your first name and address yes and your address please 32 thank you uh is there anybody else from the public who would like to to speak to this project can can can you come up and address the board please sir and and SMY show me where my house is oh no we're not we're not not gonna have figure out how that I think a a site plan would most likely benefit um that would you like copy the site plan yeah want to copy yeah is your driveway is he gonna knock everything down and build all new construction or use the the existing building and build off that that's there that's a good question for the applicant but I believe I'm not going to assume but because this is an adapter of reuse the existing footprint has to remain thank you

okay um one more come on up ma'am yep it's you nope you came up three times already yep state your name and your hi it's Marilyn nari n a s t a r i I live on Campbell Avenue I have a few questions about this um he said these are Apartments how many of these buildings were going to be on that land uh there are two existing and two will remain the same buildings will remain what do you mean two existing already built there the two existing on the property will remain and be converted into residential units so there are two of these these already on that property there are two buildings on the property ma'am like this no not like the rendering that that is a representation of what the applicant proposes the buildings will look like after construction is complete so that is a picture of what may come and more may come no no so there's no proposed construction there's only proposed renovation there's no proposed construction there's only renovation proposed of existing structures how many apartments would to be in something like this so on that building 42 and the smaller building next door uh six six apartments in the side building and then 42 in the larger building that is there are these apartments going to be lowi income or are they going to be senior citizens yeah believe worried about our taxes going up that's what I I'm concerned and I'm definitely concerned about the traffic yes defitely a lot of yes a lot

of your neighbors are all voiced their concern about the traffic as well tonight so are these just regular apartments or are they going to be like I said are they going to be elderly or are they going to be loow income or are they going to be apartments for just any of us think it matters yeah yes so I believe that the applicant said it was market rate but he can answer your question once he comes up to respond to all the the questions that were asked in the public comment are you going to have another meeting on this most likely Oh yes most ad uh so ask ad yeah the reason I'm asking is that uh some of the PE some of our my um neighbors such as myself never received a letter and I was talking to uh my State Rep and he told me that they only have to send it to the people that live 200 200 yards away from the property that's not fair I live more than 200 yards away from that property I live on Campbell I'm going to be affected by these apartments I think they should send them to everybody on bed Campbell Dickenson Loi and wherever these other people right I think we all should receive those letters I I would speak to your State Rep about that huh I would speak to your State Rep about that they're the ones that make the state LW well it's arur cor if what thank you do you have any more questions regarding this appc I'll come up with more I'm sure thank you all right we're well we're gonna thank you ma'am at this time we're going to close the public hearing the time is 7:44 pm. thank you very much for your participation in tonight's hearing everybody um okay

so we'd like the applicant to come back up uh Jack I don't know how many notes you were able to take I took I took several notes I I'll just point out in terms of the the parking um like we said we were required to have one space per unit but we actually have so there's 48 units we have an extra 21 parking spaces that we're putting on the site so there'll be almost one um car for each bedroom in in the property if not so so we have total of 67 parking spaces mon to 48 and then we so we have another 20 and 21 two bedrooms so I added those together so that gives us a total of um that total 69 bedrooms so with the 69 bedrooms we have 67 spaces which is almost one space per car which is over what we required to have cor correct you are exceeding the minimum the minimum number of quite a bit uh number two in terms of the concern about I'm sorry can can the public please um refrain from speaking if you'd like to have a conversation you're more than welcome to step outside the chambers but uh the Acoustics in this room as you guys know very very uh bad and I'm having trouble hearing the gentleman with the microphone thank you the as far as the rentals my client intends to rent all the units now as in other projects um he uh many times he converts these units to Condominiums so he may keep some of them and rent them he may sell some of them it might be a combination of rentals or an ownership but as you know a condominium form it's just a form of ownership that the number of Apartments won't change um but at some future date he he may just like he did for example he has a project in Cranston he did uh 96 units in uh uh country viw Condominiums he's kept 30 of

them and he's sold like 60 of them so it's a partial rental partial ownership that may or may not happen at point in the future he hasn't decided in terms of the the affordability nature of the units um just because of their size I I suspect in where they're located um many of these units whether we we talk about an affordability component or not are going to be affordable that's just the nature of these units according to my client um we really can't respond my um edification what's the rent range like if it was today you check with that right the rent range would probably be from, 1450 to 1,800 so for the two bedrooms they'd be 18800 like 18 185 that is below LMI that's below affordable just want to let you know that's why I'm saying we have exactly so just by the size of the units but the difference between affordable housing versus Section 8 housing first of all as you probably know we're not we're not allowed to ask people how they're paying for their rent if they show up the Section 8 certificate you're required to take it you're not required to say oh wait a second we don't want to rent to a Section 8 person but affordable doesn't I mean e $1,500 people are all have jobs and are working that are going to be going into these units um and but that being said if someone does come in with a Section 8 certificate and a ticket you have to accept it you can't say we're not going to have any um just because you're um on Section 8 and you need a ticket we we can't reject that person because of a Section 8 certificate um the other thing I know some people and we're going to have a obviously we want a traffic study but many of the issues that they brought up concerning people speeding a traffic stud is not going to address people speeding through the streets a traffic study is not going to address the issue

of whether or not there's enough stop signs in the neighborhood that that's out of my client's control so you know people speeding down the street is not going to be commented on by a traffic study or the number of stop signs or the people not stopping at at stop signs so my client is not going to be able to resolve that issue that's something that's an Enforcement issue with the town um there are some other questions that the I uh yep so um uh the comment for environmental study was made um specifically regarding a phase one yeah we we certainly can have a phase one done that they're not phas one's on very expensive um rodent in Pest Control concerns when renovations to the property are are happening um does is the client manable to having rodent Pest Control happen prior to uring construction can well well I I I have a um one of my uh subcontractors who goes into houses with and we're going to take him down and they have to Abate whatever the situation may be so I'll have him go there and answer is yes thank you answer yes we'll take fire fire department um assessment of the of the site plan well that that's something the town does automatically um I know in the last project we had we had a letter from the uh the fire department indicating it was satisfactory I know my client had an informal conversation with the chief of police they want a formal yeah and does your does your um civil engineer does he have the ability to um uh path out uh graphically um our uh Town's um firefighting apparatus um

on the on the plan to to indicate that all turning radiuses of of our equipment can be maintained well well in in add in addition or even to to solidify the Chiefs Chief will do that he he will he will tell you everything and if he's has access to be able to get to it I think you're asking is once we speak to the fire chief are we able to show maybe a colorcoded rendering showing where the the truck would enter and exit coming into that neighborhood is that is that what you're asking for uh no what I've what I've seen is is a study of um the actual route that the fire truck takes on property it it it it shows the footprint of the fir Tru and uh basically the call it like the tire tracks through the parking lot basically determine um or or conclude whether or not there's enough maneuvering clearance for a fire department apparatus understood well with through my experiences in the past the fire department is not to go into the paring L if he can get if the fun of the building is on the street and he'll address that he he they won't go pulling the ladder trucks and everything around the we we'd rather have the fire department definitely well that's what I said I'll get something about it y assess the assess the plan and have them determine the best the best way to respond to an emergency and make requests recommendations modifications to your to your plan to ensure that the residents of your building can be um uh can be addressed in or assisted in life safety situation um snow clearing how is snow

clearing going to be accommodated on the property correct that's we'd love it if the town would pay for our plowing but no how where is it goingon to be put is storage going to remain okay on the property and it's going to be by private company yeah it'll be private um we'll address the issue where the snow is going to be placed on the property when it gets pull out okay okay um how is uh trash going to be collected well we have a we had a we show a dumpster on the property I know there was a comment from the staff indicating we're going to have to move that out of the flood zone um I think we showed it initially in the flood zone which is against code so we're going to have to place that in an in another area but to answer your question we're going to have a a a trash container private yeah private okay yeah um do you guys have a narog excuse me um not yet SE capacity letter not yet not yet um how about uh water capacity from prop prop go ahead we had a water letter that was submitted have the water letter is that submitted it is yeah it should be in the packet yeah okay um has um have you done an electrical power study and is there enough has n Grid or Rhode Island energy deemed suff efficient power to uh Supply building there is three phase there's three phase right front of the building so we we got all the power that we need and did I hear you guys say that um the storm water management and the wetlands permit has have been issued to Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management filed out we haven't got a decision from no no but the the application is in with them or the application has has been filed has been filed yes it's we haven't gotten it back yet so just corre legally just so I um

the state law says that you the town can accept an application for preliminary plan without State approvals but you have to have your state approvals in order for the town to Grant the approval on preliminary plan in the past some communities will wave that but I just want you to be on notice that the approv appr of preliminary plan may not happen until those State approvals are received um and this did not come up from the neighbors but it was um a comment that I think the board had in a photometric uh foot candle study of exterior lighting on the property um right I think my client stated that all the lighting is going to be that down lighting no no flood lights aiming out but everything's going to be down or some of the lights will be washing the building but if you need more a better detail to show that or or it's a photometric Tim knows what it is okay y okay right yeah I think I think that's a did you say that you were going to have a party engineer look at this yeah so I leave would leave well um we're we're aboard right we're going to we're going to discuss um but I I do believe that um uh considering the the history of the property everything that we've learned about the property tonight and every um from your presentation the engineers presentation and also the um uh the public here I think third party um uh study regarding um storm

water um and um uh possibly a traffic study would be um could a PE review I'm sorry would be would be um applicable you say storm water study a I'm sorry it's a it's a peer review of the of the the drainage plans prepared by um Commonwealth only only can look at is traffic no he's talking about so thir body engineer can only traffic it's what whatever Dem approves Dem approves there's nobody that steps over them all right so in traffic there's a debate what my client's saying is that de is the aitor of the of the drain speak the mic sorry demem is the final aitor right Tim well they are a third party reviewer right so we're gonna have demem we want another reviewer on top of De that happens all the time yeah third party review of the of the civil engineering it's actually required by Town ordinance as well for all multif family developments so you want a tra you want a traffic study and who's gonna is deo gonna do do all the peer review on everything yes okay all right okay so basically going to be looking at a phase one we're going to be looking at a traffic study in a Dem drainage um what review and and the fire department as well as the photometric those are the four things that we're going to and the modif the modification

to the interior plant uh show every unit with Windows and and the snow and the snow piles and the um the modification of the facade to break up like we talked about the the facade so arit break up the appearance yeah I also think that they'll take care of it that they H us yeah I know they'll do a good job um I also think that the team should also reconsider um alleviating congestion onto the site vehicular wise with with only one entrance into the parking lot um on on be I I um I just think that the the development and would would improve upon its impact to the neighborhood um should there be two access points in and out of the of the property rather than the the one on on beard I could look into that consider that thank you and then can I just so for NB he talked about MBC I that's a different agency but I don't know if the town has like a sewer department you should get a sewer capacity letter from an arrogant I don't know if it's n NBC that's it you don't have a sewer department in the town no okay yeah the the NBC took over the whole town in our Province okay other towns they have both no I know that's why I was telling you while you're standing there sir um there were a lot of comments regarding FL flooding and I was can you just describe what the proposed topography does on site and where the projected um sheet flow would

go what I heard from a lot of comments it sounds like a lot of people having flooding in their basement which is a different animal than know from our site there's also the component there is a flood plane out there so during large rainfall events that covert is going to start backing up because the amount of water coming down the hill is greater than what that Culvert can take so it starts backing up and that's why there's a flood plane Associated just UPG gradient of that culber so you got two animals you got high groundwater table it sounds like people's basements are flooding that's due to who knows what there's soil conditions uh it could be high Bedrock near their house that's a different animal than the 100-year flood plane but it's a drainage issue I I get it when you get a lot of rain you get flooded basements you get high water you know there's a lot of things going on with a lot of rain so that's why for Rhode Island living space has to be above the the 100e flood plane and that's this project does do that the parking area below is in the 100e flood plane and um does the current site design um allow for more water to run off this property than it currently does now oh no it's going to be significantly less I mean we're removing so much pavement from the site significantly less thank you all right okay thank you guys so um how much time are we going to need for the peer review I I rather wait not schedule this not continue this

matter until we know what what the time frame is for getting a p review so in the past he's done it within two or three weeks so I would get it in as soon as POS possible so he has time if I could just ask I think we should hold off until we address these items and have the revised set of plans for him to review because we're talking possibly a second curb cut right why is he going to review this plan set when we're making some changes so I would agree all right yeah plus you um need time for a traffic study how much should that be a condition to do what traffic study um I think we'll have a traffic study done probably in the next two weeks put come so I know there was a question concerning advertising so we've advertised so we would just need to continue it tonight um number one number two um we'd like to continue into the next meeting and obviously for some reason we run into an issue with the traffic study then we we'd call you ahead of time and continue it we're unable to get that work done and then over to the third party to peer review and as I always request you will wave uh the deadline within which this board has to make a decision um for that period of time so we're adding on another 30 days right not a problem thank you um yes um of everything including the well will make the decision on combining but you want to we want to continue everything yep and one more comment um because the

um uh the the site drawings and um got up updated and and you have a really nice rendering there I think it would benefit um the presentation um um that the the rendering that you have right there be be updated to match um the the site design as well showing what landscape elements are going to be in in place um because it yes just more one of the building is going to be all grass so all that as comes out there's so much ashb not needed correct I I hear I understand but the person in the back may not and they may just be looking at that rendering saying that there's going to be parking in front of the building which isn't 100% correct look the right way correct yes they do it's four of seven what's it called oh they got trees um no they don't they don't they don't yeah um and I just realized that the Landscaping plan um wasn't as complete as I had originally thought um I do see trees peppered on the um on the plan but um uh can the presentation be I think the presentation can be improved um with the landscape plan actually identifying species of trees and a delineation of um pavement versus um Landscaping you you did have a color uh board there which I thought was very very helpful compared to the black and white that we have up

here probably can show the RAR parking lot with the Landscaping all around it and the green and the parking lot in the grayish color you'll be able to see the separations and this picture in the fun I know you're looking at all asille but this is the road right here but all right here yep is not going to be it'll be green right understood fun and and be a lot more pleasant to look at good thank you okay so what I heard the applicant would like to continue yeah what would that be maybe uh March 12th at 6 PM again for anyone in the audience I'll get oh yeah these I know isi solid not do we do we have a motion okay yep so we'll open it up for a discussion uh if um people in the public if you can just quiet down we're still uh we're still meeting here um so I'll open up for discussion the applicant would like to um

continue the topic um which is described as a master plan review with request to combine preliminary plan review for an Adaptive reuse development converting the existing two structures into 48 residential units um address 114 Barett Avenue um the applicant would like to continue to the March um planning board hearing um with a condition that the board has an extension on their time to render an opinion on the top on the um uh on the application do I hear a motion so we just yeah so move do I have a second okay I'll call for the vote Lou I Warren Steve chair votes I we have a continuance thank you very much and just for everyone in the audience again that is uh March 12th at 6 o'clock pm there will be no additional mailings because this is a continuance so just uh put that date in your calendar and uh be aware thank you all right sit down you got make a motion I make a motion that wej all right wait wait wait wait do we have a motion to adjourn Warren I and you SEC and Lou seconded okay all in favor I I I don't think he was on I don't think I don't think he was on but but that gentleman look project upgrades existing