Last September, the Newport City Council approved a swath of new zoning in the North End. These changes lay the groundwork for an ambitious redevelopment plan that the City Council approved earlier in 2021, called the North End Urban Plan.
Before this new zoning was approved, however, a group of North End residents was already studying how it could be changed to put a stronger emphasis on equity in the redevelopment process.
This coalition of neighbors, called the Local Advisory Group, was assembled in 2021 to work with Smart Growth America — a national organization that community members independently hired last January. Over the past year, the coalition has worked with Smart Growth America consultants to advocate for equitable development in the North End, which involved drafting the proposed zoning amendments.
“The one thing we don’t want the [Planning Board] to think, or the City Council to think, is that we are anti-development. That is not the purpose of what we are doing,” said Aida Neary, a Newport resident and member of the Local Advisory Group. “What we’re trying to do is to make sure that while there is development, that the citizens of the North End are able to live in the North End when the development is finished.”
Going into Monday’s Planning Board meeting, over 300 people had signed an online petition in support of the amendments. The petition read, “As it is currently written, this new zoning is likely to leave Newport residents out of any benefits from the future development and cause housing and business displacement. Residents are speaking up.”
The idea of the North End Urban Plan is to create a so-called “innovation district” in the North End, which Newport officials hope will attract higher-paying industries and jobs, and diversify the coastal city’s economy away from tourism and hospitality. As written, the plan calls for the preservation of existing residential zoning, and it seeks to promote equity through the creation of community benefits like job training and civic amenities.
According to members of the Local Advisory Group, the proposed amendments are not intended to overwrite the North End Urban Plan or the city’s new zoning in the North End, but instead aim to ensure local families are protected from potential adverse effects of gentrification. Their suggestions focus on three main issues: green and open space, community benefits, and affordable housing.
Although the city’s zoning already mandates that at least 5% of new developments in the North End be devoted to open space, the proposed changes would specify what forms of open space are acceptable — like parks, plazas, or playgrounds. The amendments also strengthen the existing zoning’s language around Community Benefits Agreements, which are deals that developers will have to make with the local community in exchange for building in the North End.
Newport’s Planning Board also unanimously recommended an amendment that would allow developers to construct one additional story on their buildings if 15% of their total housing units are offered as affordable housing for families earning up to 60% of the area median income.
“Conceptually, the language is drafted so that the community investors and developers seeking to build in the innovation hub will be throwing money away if they don’t build workforce or affordable housing,” said Dylan Conley, a lawyer representing the Local Advisory Group. “Everyone’s incentives are aligned.”
The proposed amendments’ success before the Planning Board on Monday marks a significant breakthrough for the Local Advisory Group, which is composed of more than a dozen North End residents. At Monday’s Planning Board meeting, member Ellen Pinnock said the collaboration with Smart Growth America has involved “blood, sweat, tears, heart, [and] soul.”
With the Planning Board’s recommendation, the suggested amendments will next head to Newport’s City Council. They could face another hurdle there, as the City Council previously rejected several of the Planning Board’s recommendations concerning North End zoning, including amendments that would have strengthened the language around community benefits and required 20% of parking spaces to be equipped with electric vehicle charging.
Among Planning Board members, however, the Local Advisory Group’s amendments garnered praise on Monday.
“These [amendments] only make this document stronger for everybody,” said Kevin Michaud, a member of the Planning Board. “There’s a lot less gray area.”
Antonia Ayres-Brown is the Newport Reporter for The Public’s Radio and a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at antonia@thepublicsradio.org
