A 26-unit apartment building, proposed within a residential neighborhood of Kent Heights at 100 Wampanoag Trail, received Master Plan approval from the East Providence Planning Board on the evening of Nov. 20.

The unanimous decision came with a list of conditions attached, and followed over two hours of testimony from representatives for the developer, concerned neighbors, and a court-appointed receiver charged with ensuring that the property — a former nursing home built originally in 1962 that was shuttered and abandoned over two years ago — was left better than it currently exists.

The development is being proposed under the new adaptive reuse law that went into effect at the beginning of this year, which enables the former nursing home (itself an existing, non-conforming commercial use within a residential neighborhood) to be repurposed into housing.

An original proposal for the development, which sought 44 units and would have required multiple variances and a third story to be built on top of the original structure, has been amended. No variances or significant physical alterations to the property’s structural exterior are now requested.

“The building is dilapidated, it’s abandoned, people have broken into it. It’s a mess. It’s moldy, it’s gross,” said David Sisson, the architect hired by developer, Touchdown Realty, at the hearing. “We hope to turn it into a new building inside and out and make it look very nice. Likewise, the site is in rough shape. Plantings, the parking lot, et cetera, are not that great today. It’s a mess. We’d like to improve that.”

Neighbors’ concerns
A large part of the meeting was dedicated to allowing abutters of the property to provide their comments and concerns regarding the proposed development.

Lisa Fitzpatrick, a Milburn Road resident who lives directly behind the project site, gave a heartfelt testimony that shared how she had lived in her current house with her husband since 1989. They made renovations, installed a back deck and a pool, and watched their children grow up in the house. Now, she said, they were making preparations to turn the house into their “forever home” that would suit them as they aged into retirement and beyond.

“When my husband and I began putting money into our forever home, we did not expect this to happen, and I am devastated that my home may not be my forever home,” she said. “Please think of this residential neighborhood and the changes that will happen to it.”

Fitzpatrick shared concerns over privacy and noise that would result from the development’s proposed 35 parking spaces. Although that more than satisfies the 1:1 requirement for units to parking spaces required by law, and is actually one fewer parking space than currently exists on the site, Fitzpatrick reasoned that the nursing home never had more than a handful of cars at any given time, whereas a housing development would reasonably have many more cars coming and going throughout the day and night.

Furthermore, Fitzpatrick argued that the nursing home always had someone on staff that they could call with concerns, whether it was an overflowing dumpster near their property line or trucks making deliveries too early in the morning.

“Will I have lights beaming into my window at all hours? My peaceful backyard will no longer be that,” she said. “Who do I call? Do I call the developer? Will there be management on staff 24/7?”

Neighbors Allison and Zachary Kazarian took to the podium to echo the concerns over ensuring that the developer would install adequate screening and buffering to prevent residents of the future development from being able to see directly into their yard, as from their position the development sits at a high point on a hill overlooking their property.

“We want to make sure there’s not additional lighting carelessly placed that’s going into our children’s bedrooms at night,” Allison said, adding that they hoped to see mature, tall trees put in place to prevent direct line of sight into their home.

Another primary concern of the neighbors was stormwater, and what impact the proposed site would have on frequent flooding that currently happens at multiple properties within the neighborhood.

The Kazarians said they decided to hire an attorney at their own expense to represent the neighborhood’s interests after they claimed to be put off by comments made by the developer (former NFL and New England Patriots running back, Tom Clayton, co-owner of Touchdown Realty) during an abutters meeting in September.

“Due to some of his questionable and frankly alarming interactions with us, we were motivated to hire an attorney despite having two children in daycare,” Allison said. “We don’t have a lot of financial wiggle room in our month-to-month, but it was so concerning to us the way that we were being treated that we weren’t going to get a fair experience here based on his words with us and that he was not really a man of his word or would be a neighbor we would be excited to have.”

Their attorney, Steve Sypole, submitted a list of proposed demands they hoped the planning board would make of the developer as a contingency of approval, which included a requirement for the developer pay for independent, third-party experts to look over plans submitted to the city for landscaping, traffic control, lighting, and stormwater management, as well as a financial guarantee that they would be done in a timely manner.

“The nursing home was a very low impact neighbor, a very quiet neighbor, with employees on site to keep things under control all the time. This is now an apartment building with tenants that can come and go,” said Steve Sypole, the aforementioned attorney for the abutters. “There will be more traffic, there will be more noise, families, children and what have you. There’s no question that this is a more intensive use. And so intensifying a use and bringing a use that really otherwise would be prohibited in this zone, I think it should come with corresponding measures to protect the neighbors from the change this will bring.”

Compromise established
Joseph Brennan, attorney representing Touchdown Realty, pushed back on the demands regarding a third-party review of submitted plans, saying that the city would have their own engineer look over the plans, and that for this property specifically, the court-appointed receiver would have additional oversight to ensure that approved plans are adhered to within a reasonable time frame.

“So you have three full layers of protections in place,” he said. “Our own engineers and landscape architects will have to stamp plans, the city engineer, and then the receivership as well.”

A request from the neighbors to limit or prohibit smoking was brought to a cordial conclusion, as Brennan said the applicant would be willing to put a no smoking policy in the lease agreement for tenants within the apartments and on the development property as a whole.

In regards to the stormwater, architect Sisson said that they would be getting into more detailed engineering reports during the next stage at preliminary approval process, but that any improvements they made would be an upgrade from existing conditions at the site. Additionally, he cautioned that the site has widespread stormwater challenges due to the natural topography of the location.

“We’re going to do stormwater mitigation on this site to deal with this site’s stormwater,” he said. “What we can’t do is mitigate stormwater that falls on other properties and flows off those properties onto yet another person’s property. Our goal is to make the stormwater situation from where it is today better in the future for this site and the neighbors to the best of our ability, but we can’t cure the entire neighborhood if there are other stormwater problems.”

Ultimately, the planning board agreed to some of the neighbor’s requests, such as requiring a fence line be completed to deter trespassing and protect privacy, and that exterior lighting along the rear of the building be dark skies compliant and directed in a way to prevent excessive spillage into neighbors’ homes.

However, they stopped short of granting an independent, third-party review of landscaping, traffic, noise, and stormwater management studies, opting instead to let the city’s engineering department handle the review, and make a recommendation for additional studies if that becomes an apparent need.

“I think this is a special and somewhat unusual project. I can understand the concerns of all of the local residents,” said planning board member K. Eric Crook. “But I also do have great trust in our planning department, although I will ask them on your behalf to do your absolute best to make this right.’

Crook then took a moment to speak directly to Tom Clayton.

“You may have gotten off on the wrong foot with some of these residents,” he said. “I wish you the best in making sure that some day when it’s all done, somebody from the neighborhood brings you a pie and thanks you. The area is an eyesore, and this project does need to be done.”

Developer responds
Reached for response to the criticism thrown his way during the meeting last week, Touchdown Realty owner, Tom Clayton, defended his company as a “seasoned development firm with over 11 years of experience doing very heavy-lift projects up and down the Northeastern corridor”, which specializes in the kind of adaptive reuse projects like the one being deliberated for this property.

He said that there were many neighbors who sought to be better informed during the abutters meetings, which he said were organized to inform them about the adaptive reuse law that enabled this project to occur.

“[M]y intention in attending was to educate the neighbors on the new adaptive reuse laws passed by the State earlier this year and share with the neighbors our vision and the many possibilities available in converting the former nursing home into much-needed housing. Fortunately, there were a large number of neighbors there who sought to be informed,” he wrote in an email. “There was also a patch of neighbors there that, no matter what I said, were very hostile and bent on opposing our concept, which was very unfortunate. Ultimately, I wanted the neighbors to know that housing was coming to 100 Wampanoag Trail - and would be a vast improvement to what's there currently. Fortunately, the city understood our vision and approved the project.”

Regarding Fitzpatrick’s concerns regarding who she might turn to if problems arise with the development once it is finished, Clayton offered the following:

“We have a platform for tenants and neighbors to reach out with any questions and concerns, which we address within 24-48 hours,” he wrote. “That has always been a policy of Touchdown that we take seriously.”