The City Council Ordinance Committee will hold a public hearing on the Fane luxury skyscraper proposal on Wednesday, July 18th at 5:30pm in the City Council Chamber (City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, Third Floor).
The Council has the final say in whether the special zoning change the developer is seeking will be approved or not, and thus, they control the fate of the project. They seek a change in the allowable maximum height for buildings on that particular parcel from 100 feet to 600 feet. It’s an important meeting to attend if you have an opinion on the matter.
If you would like to provide written testimony on the proposal (in addition to or instead of attending the hearing), you may send it to Emily Martineau, City Council Chief of Staff at emartineau@providenceri.gov; and directly to Chair Terrence Hassett at Ward12@providenceri.com.
For those who haven’t followed this, Dan McGowan wrote a detailed and (I think) very fair piece in East Side Monthly this month: http://eastsidemonthly.com/stories/a-towering-debate,27839
While the above is my attempt to provide neutral information, I personally oppose the current proposal and have heard many negative concerns from folks in the neighborhood. As such, the SNA board and I summarized these concerns in our letter to the editor in the Providence Journal and urged the Council to vote against the special zoning change, which we view as a troubling example of “spot zoning” that would set aside years of thoughtful work and public engagement that was done to develop the current zoning plan: www.providencejournal.com/…/letter-ethan-gyles-new-skyscrap…
If you do plan to attend the hearing — whether for or against — I’d appreciate hearing about it.
Best regards,
Ethan Gyles
President, SNA
