‘Rapid bus’ lines part of new development districts

(Corrected, April 21, 9:40 a.m.)

Providence is encouraging transit-oriented development in two neighborhoods most residents may not associate with transportation or potential growth.
The Trinity Square neighborhood in Upper South Providence and the northern section of North Main Street at the Pawtucket line are singled out for the city’s first two transit-oriented development districts in its ongoing zoning rewrite.
Neither are in particularly high-demand areas of the city, nor are they along the route of the proposed Providence streetcar line intended to foster new development.
Instead they are along the R-Line, the “rapid bus” project the R.I. Public Transit Authority is fashioning this spring from the existing routes 11 and 99 bus lines between Cranston and downtown Pawtucket.
Featuring specially painted buses, signs and shelters, the R-Line will reduce trip times along Broad Street and North Main Street utilizing smart stoplights that detect their approach and stay green.
Although much more modest in appearance than the streetcar, the R-Line is expected to serve 10,500 passengers per day, more than three times as many as the streetcar in its first year.
The new transit-oriented development zoning overlay districts the city proposes for Trinity Square and North Main Street would allow new building heights up to 70 feet instead of 45 feet in the base Commercial-2 zones where both are located.
Developers would also be freed from parking minimums in the overlay districts for new residential units and the first 5,000 square feet of commercial construction would also be exempt from providing off-street parking.
By easing these zoning restrictions, which make new projects more costly, city officials hope the areas will see growth. “We have envisioned this among a number of areas throughout the city where we wanted to link the land use and transit together to allow for greater density,” said Bonnie Nickerson, the city’s director of long-range planning.
But just as city officials began promoting the new zoning map, including the transit districts, a partnership including Cranston-based developer The Procaccianti Group submitted plans to build a suburban-style LA Fitness gym with the kind of large surface parking lot the zoning change was meant to prevent.
Most of the 45,500-square-foot gym will be in Pawtucket, but the Procaccianti proposal would knock down the former Sears building and duck-pin bowling alley to make way for a 300-space lot in Providence.
The plan would be allowed under the current zoning, but would have double the number of off-street parking spaces allowed in the proposed transit district.
“We are supportive of the use in this location, but we are concerned about the large amount of parking,” said Robert Azar, Providence director of current planning. “The proposed TOD zone is designed to prevent this very thing, in order to encourage more compact development well-served by alternate modes of transportation.”
In the last few years, the area around Trinity Square has seen the construction of several new subsidized housing developments, mostly by nonprofit Stop Wasting Abandoned Properties, and a mixed-use project at 500 Broad St.
Real estate professionals, however, say interest in market rate and commercial development of the kind that might take advantage of loosened zoning is still light. North Main Street, on the other hand, could have the combination of market demand and underutilized properties to attract investors and developers.
“I think there could be residential on North Main,” said Mike Giuttari, president of MG Commercial Real Estate in Providence. “It is a great location with access to downtown.”
Giuttari said the southern end of North Main where it nears Benefit Street is already active, but the key is stoking interest in the northern end where the new overlay district is proposed.
Neil Amper, vice president of commercial brokerage Capstone Properties in Providence, said the LA Fitness plans show demand, but the challenge of North Main now is the poor walkability and number of properties with neither a residential nor retail activity.
“It’s a mixed area that is hard to know what the actual redevelopment potential is,” Amper said.
According to the proposed zoning map released by the city this month, the North Main transit overlay district would start just south of First Street and run north to the Pawtucket line, where it widens out to include the shopping center behind the planned LA Fitness site.
At Trinity Square, the proposed transit overlay runs northwest around 10 blocks from the lots around the square itself, to the south side of Broad behind Classical High School to Service Road.
Amper said the Broad Street area is difficult for large projects because of small lots and low rents.
As for the new bus service itself, the stoplight-prioritization system is in place, new signs are going up this month and Greg Nordin, RIPTA principal planner for special projects, said the R-Line is expected to start service June 21.

A previous version of this article included an incorrect estimated start date for the R-Line.

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1 COMMENT

  1. “Although much more modest in appearance than the streetcar, the R-Line is expected to serve 10,500 passengers per day, more than three times as many as the streetcar in its first year.”

    Just another reason the proposed street car route, at current, makes no sense.

    Also, The Procaccianti Group? The same ‘developer’ who promised a so called ‘power block’ in downtown by the convention center? Please.