Providence developers Dustin Dezube and Kevin Diamond with the Providence Group have submitted revised plans for an apartment complex that would be located at 269 Wickenden Street. The City Plan Commission is set to review the proposal at its upcoming meeting on Jan. 21.
The preliminary plans come more than a year after the City Plan Commission approved the master plan, although the developers substantially altered their designs based on stipulations and feedback from the Commission and members of the public.
The developers have stripped the proposed building of any parking and changed the building’s legal frontage to face Brook Street instead of Wickenden Street, and have decreased the building’s height.
Project architect Kevin Diamond says his redesign also directly addresses criticism voiced by members of the public during hours of public testimony at previous City Plan Commission meetings. Chief among the complaints has been the building’s scale. Many residents think a building taller than four stories is too big for a historic street with mostly two and three story mixed-use buildings.
“We’ve really made an effort,” Diamond said. “And I don’t think it’s going to mean that everyone’s going to love everything all the time, but I think it’s going to mean that people see that we listen and that we’re trying our best.”
Under the new design, the building’s height has been brought down several inches from 66 feet, 5 inches to 65 feet, 9 inches. The building is also now set to contain 74 residential units, slightly down from the 75 residential units the developers proposed the last time the building was up for review. Many residents also previously said they didn’t like the appearance of the building, and Diamond says that too has shifted significantly.
Dozens of residents previously raised concerns about a lack of parking spaces. Earlier iterations of the design contained parking, though many neighborhood residents worried it was inadequate and that they would have to compete with a glut of new cars vying for public parking spaces as well as increased traffic on Wickenden Street.
The idea of getting rid of required parking spots for residential developments through new zoning ordinances is one that is gaining some consideration among city politicians. And last year, advocates with Providence Streets Coalition published an open letter calling on the city council to consider getting rid of parking minimums, arguing that required parking spaces means less space for housing in a city with not enough places to live.
Diamond says the building does not need parking, given how walkable the neighborhood is. Fox Point is a so-called “fifteen minute city” – an urban planning concept used to describe a neighborhood where most everything a person needs can be found within a fifteen minute walk.
Most residents in Fox Point live less than a fifteen minute walk from a grocery store, a pharmacy, clothing shops, restaurants and specialty stores. There is also a RIPTA bus stop directly in front of 269 Wickenden Street for east-bound buses, and a stop for west-bound buses less than a block away.
The new designs show a building that continues to look like five stories from the street corner (although the lowest level is technically an extension of the cellar level), a previous condition from the City Plan Commission. Other parts of the building are five stories, plus a cellar that is partially exposed at street-level, which gives the appearance of six stories.
Another common critique of the project has been the accusation that units will not be affordable. Diamond says it is too early to say whether they will market some of the units as affordable but that his team is closely watching municipal and statewide regulations to see what tax breaks and incentives might be offered. The mayor has mentioned wanting to reform some local tax break regulations to make them more friendly to developers.
Diamond also says it is too early to say when construction on the project might begin.
According to Deputy Planning Director Bob Azar, if the building passes through the preliminary plan stage of the process, it will then go on to its final round of approval by the City Plan Commission.
The Providence City Plan Commission’s Jan. 21 meeting begins at 4:45 p.m. Members of the public may also participate in public comment or watch the meeting on zoom.