Matthew CoolidgeBased on the Providence Tomorrow Charrettes that took place last year, the final draft of the Elmhurst and Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Plan is now available for review on the Planning Department’s website.
Documents to review include:
- The neighborhood plan (pdf)
- The neighborhood plan map (pdf)
- The list of initiatives (pdf)
The City Plan Commission will be reviewing the plans and taking public comment on August 18th at 4:45pm at 400 Westminster Street, 4th floor. Any comments received by phone or email will also be provided to the Commission members.
Greater City Providence
In the history this sentence says it all:
“It was not until the end of the nineteenth century when public transportation
improved that substantial residential development occurred.”
Public transportation is key to revitalizing Providence. And buses for some reason just don’t cut it.
I’m glad RIPTA is looking at streetcars for Providence and LRT for RI.
There are admirable objectives in the Elmhurst and Mount Pleasant Plan, however, an overriding theme that the plan shares with the Olneyville, Valley and Smith Hill Neighborhood Plan is down-zoning. Multi-family houses are bad and single or two-family houses are good, sounds suburban-ish. So that must mean sprawl is good. Just continue to spread new development to the outer suburbs. Have a charrette invite the neighbors and suburbanize the city. Is the only place where growth and development is supposed to occur in Providence is downtown?
I believe RIPTA is focusing on a streetcar that would run from the Jewelry District (Rhode Island Hospital) through downtown and up to Thayer Street… Not that exciting in my opinion. Sure it’s a good pilot project with plenty of room for expansion but why not extend into the South Side? Why not work on revitalizing neighborhoods are in need of help instead of fixating on building new condos? TOD isn’t just for empty lots..