The new Put the Waterfront to Work plan protects and expands the Port of Providence, bringing additional jobs for Providence residents. The changes create a Working Waterfront Protection Zone that will expressly designate the waterfront from Fields Point up to Thurbers Avenue as a place exclusively for maritime industrial businesses.
These activities include cargo shipping, shipbuilding and ship repair, energy and utility businesses, fishing-related uses, and other water dependent activities.
Under the new plan, residential uses, including condominiums, as well as restaurants, retail and hotels will be prohibited from the marine industrial Port of Providence.
The new Put the Waterfront to Work plan will:
- Create a new zoning district to exclusively serve as a heavy marine industrial zone. This Working Waterfront Protection Zone would promote and protect ProvPort and water-dependent maritime industrial uses on the Providence waterfront.
- Prohibit condominiums or any other residential development in the Working Waterfront Protection Zone at Fields Point.
- Expand and increase efficiency at the Port of Providence by providing 12 additional acres for port laydown and storage through the sale or lease of a large City-owned parcel to ProvPort.
- Acquire two Fields Point parcels which currently house a storage facility, vacant warehouse and obsolete waste treatment facility to add another 7.5 acres to the Working Waterfront Protection Zone.
- Protect vital truck routes and freeway and freight rail access to serve the Port’s cargo shipping industry.
- Acquire property for a new, state-of-the-art rail and roadway loop, providing additional space for ProvPort operations and increase rail capacity from 15 to 50 cars.
- Create a new, state-of-the-art rail and roadway loop, providing additional space for ProvPort operations and increase rail capacity from 15 to 50 cars.
- Create a Providence Port Commission to advise the City on land use changes.
In addition, as part of the City’s port expansion efforts, the City has enthusiastically advocated for federal funding to expand the operation of ProvPort.