30-unit apartment complex in Providence neighborhood gets initial approval

PROVIDENCE − The Providence City Plan Commission gave initial approval to tear down a three-story mixed use building in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence surrounded on three sides by parking lots and turn the lot into a 30-unit apartment complex with two commercial units on the first floor.

The commission, at its meeting on Wednesday night, voted to allow the proposed four-story development at 541 Hartford Ave. and to combine the first two stages of approval, the master plan and the preliminary plan. The commission also voted to reduce the number of parking spaces and to allow for a building wider entrance.

Of the 30 apartments, 27 total would be 1-bedroom units and three would be 2-bedrooms units. Each of the three residential floors would have nine 1-bedroom units and one 2-bedroom unit.

Commission Chairman Michael Gazdacko said he was intrigued by the proposal, the first development in the area he has seen in years.

"I think it's a good omen and hopefully it'll trigger some more development," he said.

The owner and developer is E 2000 Realty, owned by Ralph Palumbo of Lincoln.

The project will still require final approval from the city.

Zoning calls for more parking

The building as proposed would normally require 33 parking spaces −one for each apartment and one additional space per 500 square feet of commercial space but the developer asked for and received, a "dimensional adjustment" to decrease the number of spaces to 20.

Providence's zoning ordinances allow mixed-use developments to ask to reduce the amount of parking on site as long as more than 50% of the development is residential.

ZDS Architecture Principal Aimee Lombardo said putting the commercial space on the first floor, along Hartford Avenue, would help "activate" the streetscape.

Neighboring businesses include multiple restaurants, a strip mall across the street, a bakery and multiple hair salons.

Renderings of the building show it taking up the entire block, between Glenbridge Avenue and Bowlett Street, with a parking entrance in the rear.

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Neighbors complain about school, parking, hookah bar and rats

Three neighbors spoke against the project, complaining about rats; the lack of parking spaces; traffic in the area; a local hookah lounge; the Delsessto Middle School and Anthony Carnevale Elementary School on Springfield Street; and the prospect of people using housing vouchers living in the building.

Kathleen Rentrope, who lives nearby, said the development needed more parking and that "conservatively," 60 people would live in the 30 units, 27 of which are one-bedrooms. So many people will create a rodent problem, she said.

David Marshall, who ran for the Ward 7 City Council seat last year, said he didn't want a tall building because people would be "lurking out their windows" and making noise, adding to what he described as a problem of too much trash and loud music on the street. He also took issue with people possibly using housing vouchers to rent the apartments, as well as people he presumed to be homeless on Hartford Avenue but did not elaborate on his complaints.

After the public comment closed, Gazdacko said most of the complaints were not under the Planning Commission's purview, that who rents the apartments is none of their concern, and that many complaints were contradictory as more parking brings more cars, which results in more traffic.

"I understand the neighbors, that this is something new and scary, but they also say they've seen the area deteriorate, and this may spark investment and more improvements," he said.

While the developer has submitted a plan to the state to reduce rents for some of the units as "workforce housing," the proposal in front of the City Plan Commission was for market-rate units, attorney Joseph Brennan said.

"Workforce housing" is typically defined as people making between 60% and 120% of the area median income, or AMI, which ranges between $41,340 for a single person to $118,200 for a family of four in Providence and most of Rhode Island.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New apartment building in Silver Lake, Providence gets first approval