Mount Hope residents speak out against proposed apartment complex

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A proposed apartment complex near the Mount Hope neighborhood in Providence would bring dozens of apartments to the community.

But residents have concerns about how the project came together and what it will mean for their neighborhood, coming out in droves to say they are not being included in the conversation.

“It’s kind of like you don’t have a say,” said one community member. “We don’t care to come and talk to you about anything or to see how you feel. We’re going to do what we’re going to do.”

“I don’t know where your community engagement is, but none of us got [anything],” said another during a two hour long public comment.

The development team on this project, 103 Evergreen LLC, is the same group working on the controversial apartment complex on Wickenden Street that moved forward last year.

While the Evergreen Street project was proposed as 58 units, developers brought that number down to 45 during Monday’s meeting.

“That’s still a mass amount of people, living in a sardine can, let’s just face it,” said Michelle Davis, a resident who lives down the street from the proposed complex.

“Parking, never addressed. Sewage, never addressed,” Davis continued. “The only thing that was addressed is that we’ll revisit it, and maybe we can have a meeting about the architectural part of it.”

Part of the reason those concerns weren’t discussed is that the project is still in its early stages.

It received its first recommendation from the city’s planning committee back in February.

The city commissioner for Mount Hope’s ward says they need housing, but it has to be done right.

“I think sometimes it’s easy to think about it in terms of jobs,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Sue Anderbois. “Like when people say we want to create so many jobs, what we want to create are good, family-sustaining jobs, not just a million jobs at Walmart.”

“And I think housing is the same, we need a lot of housing,” Anderbois continued. “And we need housing units for our constituents, our families, people…places where people can live with dignity.”

The development team behind the project was at Monday’s meeting, trying to take in community feedback as the project evolves.

“The common thread that we do here is that…People are telling us that they really like the buildings,” said Dustin Dezube, one of the developers. “They just don’t want it in ‘choose the location where you live by.’ So, I think reconciling…If people really want housing, where do we build it?”

The next step for this project would be approval for a requested zoning change, but that has not been scheduled as of yet.