Save the College Hill neighborhood

We, the undersigned residents of College Hill in Ward 2 of the East Side of Providence, request that the City Council, Planning Board, Zoning Board and other relevant bodies uphold the Medium-Density Residential use in the Comprehensive Plan, and to deny the Land Use Amendment, Zoning Ordinance Amendments, and Major Land Development Project (Referral 3346, Referral 3347, and Case No. 12-011) recently submitted by Gilbane Development Co. that substantially conflict with the approved Comprehensive Plan. In order to maintain the credibility of resident participation in the planning process, this and any other future major changes in zoning or scale in our neighborhood should be decided through the neighborhood Charette process at an appropriate time in the future. Our stated goal to “protect the character and scale of existing commercial buildings along Thayer Street by containing the existing commercial district and discouraging zoning variances” has not changed in the few months since the neighborhood plans were approved.