The decade-long plus drive to revise the comprehensive plan for the City of East Providence seems to finally be drawing to a close.

(Updated, corrected, Friday, Aug. 23, 11:15 a.m.) The Planning Board, at its meeting held Monday night, Aug. 19, took under consideration the updated comprehensive plan for the years 2020-2040. 

According to Chief of Staff for Mayor Bob DaSilva, Patricia Resende, the Board is scheduling a special session on Monday evening, Aug. 26, to possibly vote on whether or not to recommend the updated version to the City Council, which must formally approve the latest comp plan for it to be implemented.

Board chairman Michael Robinson expressed his support for the updated version, saying, "Clearly a great deal of work has gone into this and I'm very excited to be considering this tonight."

According to the introduction of the final draft, "The Comprehensive Plan looks at where we are, where we want to go, and how we’re going to get there. It helps us be proactive and strategic about what happens in East Providence over the next 20 years. Because it outlines our future path, it will be used to guide public and private investments. It shows what we want to preserve, what needs to be strengthened, and what could be transformed to meet current and future needs of residents and the business community."

Robinson outlined what the comprehensive plan entails, listing off all aspects taken under consideration during the revision process: Housing, Land Use, Economic Development, City Services and Facilities, Recreation, Natural Resources and Conservation, Historic and Cultural Resources and the Arts, Transportation and Connectivity, Natural Hazards and Climate Change, Sustainability and the Waterfront District.

The city's existing comp plan was last reviewed and implemented for the 2010-2015 timeframe. The near 15-year interlude runs up against the regular 10-year updates required in Rhode Island General Law 45-22.2-5, The Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act. As of 2024, new plans must also lay out a vision for "forecasts, goals, and policies" over a 20-year period, hence the new 2020-2040 span being implemented. Also of note, nothing in a municipal comprehensive plan can "supersede or diminish any regulatory or planning authority granted or delegated to a state agency by state or federal statute."

Since the current version expired much has changed in the city, which, obviously, is to be expected for such a long period of time between revisions.

Significant parts of the waterfront have already been or are in the midst of being redeveloped. Most of that construction was overseen by the East Providence Waterfront Commission, which has its own protocols, but uses the city's comprehensive plan as a guide as well. Several new housing developments approved either by the Planning/Zoning Boards, the Council or the Commission during the interlude, predominately apartment units with some single-family and townhouse style houses included, also are or thereabouts done.

The meaningful push to finally update the plan came during the session of the City Council seated at the 2018 election and with the DaSilva administration through his Department of Planning and Economic Development. At the time, the Planning Department was directed by former City Manager and long-time Waterfront Commission Chair Bill Fazioli. Fazioli remains in the latter position.

Beyond procrastination, the process was also hindered to some extent in recent years by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The affects of the pandemic can likely be seen in the number of residents who actually attended a series of meetings held in the four electoral wards of the city in 2021, just 43 total. In addition, two surveys of the public were conducted as were virtual forums. Members of the city's numerous other boards and commissions were also engaged.

The final version of the plan was composed under new Planning and Economic Development Director Keith Brynes, hired to replace Fazioli after he resigned in the fall of 2022. At last week's Planning Board meeting, Brynes noted the revised comp plan was "years in the making" and that "during COVID it was difficult to engage" the public.

The director also made mention of the requirement for the City Council to hold at least one public hearing on the revised comp plan then officially adopt it before implementation. It also must be ratified by the State of Rhode Island,
Division of Statewide Planning. The state can subsequently approve or deny the submission. However, a denial, which happened to the city's 2010-2015 comp plan, means only the state is not bound by its provisions, but it is in "full force and effect" locally.

It is only after Council approval, Brynes added, when the affiliated municipal bodies especially — Planning, Zoning and Waterfront Commission — can officially start "using the plan as a guidance document for establishing regulations and to make other decisions."