City zoning set for a new generation

COURTESY CITY OF PROVIDENCE
ZONED IN: A rendering of the potential for the city's so-called Knowledge District. A recently approved zoning plan makes it easier to build larger institutional, research buildings.
COURTESY CITY OF PROVIDENCE ZONED IN: A rendering of the potential for the city's so-called Knowledge District. A recently approved zoning plan makes it easier to build larger institutional, research buildings.

Providence’s former Jewelry District was physically reconnected to downtown last year when work crews demolished the old Interstate 195 highway overpass, but on city maps it remained isolated in zoning rules from another generation.
That has changed under a recently approved downtown rezoning plan that ties the former highway lands back into the rest of the city and makes it easier to build new labs and large institutional, research buildings in the fledgling Knowledge District.
“What this does is apply to the entire Knowledge District an overall land-use plan that will allow us to reknit in the parcels,” said Colin Kane, chairman of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, the state body in charge of the former highway lands. “This simplifies and enhances the development standards.”
Central to the new plan is the elimination of the D-2 district that used to extend from the old highway south across the rest of the Jewelry District and harkened to the area’s days as a manufacturing hub.
The old district did not allow for research centers or academic institutions without a waiver. Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, molecular biology and continuing-education buildings all required special permission to get around the old zoning.
Not so under the new zoning, which extends research and academic use to all of downtown, while encouraging an active mix of storefronts and entertainment at street level below offices, apartments, classrooms and hotel rooms on upper floors.
The new zoning also boosts the height buildings can be built by-right (without any special permission) in the Knowledge District and other parts of downtown.
In most of the Knowledge District, by-right building heights were raised from 90 to 100 feet in the new zoning, with part of the former I-195 lands closest to Interstate 95 allowed up to 200 feet.
Areas around Weybosset Street, Dyer Street and lower Pine Street where height restrictions had been below 100 feet are now 100 feet to 150 feet. And for all areas covered by the new zoning code there are mechanisms to build higher still.
Allowing taller buildings by-right in the former I-195 parcels was something Kane and the I-195 Commission pushed for after finding the money to hire a consultant to weigh in on the plan in the later stages of its development. Planners were working with a June 30 deadline, after which the 195 Commission would have to work under city zoning that was in place at the time. “One of our initial concerns was that we had this great opportunity to redevelop and we wanted to make sure we could get good yield out of the land,” Kane said. “The good news is that this does support meaningful density. It’s not 300-foot buildings, but we can get pretty tall within that fabric.”
Along those same lines, the I-195 Commission pushed city planners to ease some of the requirements for street-level retail on Friendship Street that could have made it difficult to build larger, institutional structures there.
“That is a good concept, but not every street can be Newbury Street,” Kane said about “A-Street” designations meant to encourage ground-level retail. “We don’t have that much retail demand and we have to make sure the buildings are functional and can move cars and garbage.”
The vision of the Knowledge District that comes through the new zoning plan is for a mix of buildings in the four- to eight-story range with office, classroom, lab and living spaces rising above restaurants, clubs and shops.
The new rules include paths for building heights 30 percent above the already increased limits if the developer adheres to design guidelines for ground-floor transparency, public open space and parking garages instead of surface lots.
Surface parking lots are also the target of changes in the new plans for temporary uses of downtown land. Surface parking had been allowed on a temporary basis under the old rules and now is forbidden.
In addition to refinements to encourage mixed use and Knowledge District development, another major objective of the new downtown zoning is to streamline permitting for projects that fit the city’s larger design plan.
Under the new rules, projects that meet the revised design criteria can be approved by city-planning staff without having to make a trip to the Downcity Design Review Committee or Capital Center Committee. Developer Joseph Paolino Jr., who weighed in on the new zoning rules as a member of The Providence Foundation, said eliminating the commission design review when possible was a welcome change that would save time and remove a layer of uncertainty for developers.
Paolino said he was happy to see height restrictions raised and institutional-building construction allowed. He hopes it will lead to interest from Brown and others to develop in Downcity, as well as the Knowledge District.
“All we need to do is see where development is coming from: education and research,” Paolino said. “If we look at the Capital Center, it never boomed like they thought it would, partly because of leased land and the recession. But with the Knowledge District, most will be university and hospital related, and I am bullish on the knowledge economy.”
Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce President Laurie White called the zoning changes a major step in the city’s plans for growing the Knowledge District.
“Having a transparent, understandable and efficient zoning ordinance is critical to encourage investment in our capital city, and especially the development of the Knowledge District,” White said. “Having this new system in place will better position us as a community to meet the attraction, investment and sustainability needs required to be competitive and grow the jobs base.”
The new zoning ordinance, signed by Mayor Angel Taveras May 16, was also popular with preservationists thanks to new demolition rules that require property owners to have detailed design plans for new projects before they are allowed to tear down old buildings.
The new rules would prevent speculative demolitions such as the Providence National Bank building on Weybossett Street, which was supposed to make way for a 40-story condominium tower that never materialized after the real estate market collapsed.
The rules also give planners authority to hire consultants at an applicant’s expense to review historic studies of buildings slated for demolition. •

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