Build Olneyville Transformation Plan
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Build Olneyville Plan TYPICAL STREET PERSPECTIVE 2 NOT TO SCALE Funded by: June 2014 2010 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant 5' 3' 7'-0" 8'-0" 8'-0" 7'-0" 3' 5' Local Partners 46'-0" PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY TYPICAL STREET SECTION 0 2' 4' 8' 1 SCALE: 1/4" = 1'-0" Manton Heights Typical Streets Providence, RI 6/9/2014 Build Olneyville Plan Letter from Mayor Taveras The City of Providence enthusiastically supports a plan for the redevelopment of Manton Heights the Providence Housing Authority and Olneyville that capitalizes on the existing progress made in Housing Corporation’s Build Olneyville Olneyville. This transformation plan will further Choice Neighborhood Initiative to advance advance our shared goals for this neighborhood the development of Providence’s Olneyville including: 1) Deconcentrating poverty, 2) neighborhood. Redevelopment of this crucial Increasing connectivity and 3) Leveraging piece of the City will bring many benefits to our financial and organizational collaboration between city, state, and region. stakeholders. My administration has been working in The Providence Housing Authority and the collaboration with various stakeholders to revitalize Olneyville Housing Corporation are dedicated Olneyville. In 2011-2012, my administration organizations that have led community selected Olneyville Square as the target area for our transformation for decades. Their vision is one full Urban Land Institute Rose Fellowship study on of hope and collaboration; a plan that preserves catalyzing economic development. The fellowship affordable housing and improves housing standards helped our City create an implementation plan for all Providence residents. and economic development strategy to reposition This transformation plan outlines the opportunity and revitalize Olneyville Square as a viable, mixed‐ in Olneyville, the pathway to success and abundant use urban district. opportunities for investment. It demonstrates the The Providence Housing Authority and the power of private-public partnership and the power Olneyville Housing Corporation have developed of community mobilization. Angel Taveras Mayor Build Olneyville Plan Table of Contents Chapter I. Executive Summary Chapter II. Setting the Context Chapter III. Community Engagement Chapter IV. Neighborhood Strategy Chapter V. Housing Strategy Chapter VI. People Strategy Chapter VII. Education Strategy Chapter VIII. Implementation Appendix (under separate cover) Build Olneyville Plan Acknowledgements Prepared by Manton Heights Planning Committee EJP Consulting Group, LLC Monique Bailey Milagros Medina Caitlin Bowler, graphics Pamela Bradford Mirza Miletty Dulce Cabrera Rosa Pastor BOP Principal Partners Milagros Castillo Agustina Phipps Providence Housing Authority Harry Centis Marga Pimentel Olneyville Housing Corporation Irene Collins Sandra Pompey City of Providence Diana Curtis Paul Rianna LISC Rhode Island Brenda Dilan Carla Rivera Meeting Street Dathanal Fesmin Maria Rivera Evelyn Figueroa Lourdes Romero Housing Development Team Teneka Garnetto Lucia Rosado Trinity Financial Jadajah Gomez Melissa Taylor ICON architecture Hattie Harris Patricia Taylor Keystone Consulting Group Jennifer Javier Erica Torres Olneyville Housing Corporation Osvaldo Jimenez Jazmari Torres Latoya Ledo Priscilla Whitman Consultants The American City Coalition Social Venture Partners Rhode Island Brewster Thornton Group Architects Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council Build Olneyville Plan APTE CH R I Executive Summary I-1 Chapter I. Executive Summary APTE CH R I Table of Contents A. Target Site and Neighborhood...................... I-2 B. Recent Olneyville Planning and Implementation Efforts ............................. I-4 C. Highlights of the Build Olneyville Plan ......... I-5 D. Implementation ..................................... I-10 Figures Table Figure I-1. Olneyville Neighborhood Master Plan Table I-1. Key Goals for the Build Olneyville Plan Figure I-2. Manton Heights Housing Plan Table I-2. Build Olneyville Principal Partners I-2 Build Olneyville Plan APTE CH R I Executive Summary Build Olneyville Plan (BOP), funded by a 2010 Choice Neighborhoods planning grant and locally leveraged resources, continues the ongoing revitalization effort in the Olneyville neighborhood on the west side of the City of Providence. Once a bustling industrial community supported by residential structures for workers and a commercial center in Olneyville Square, Olneyville today is slowly but surely recovering from decades of neglect and disinvestment. Based on community and stakeholder input, Build Olneyville builds off earlier plans and initiatives Table I-1. Key Goals for the Build Olneyville Plan to guide the holistic transformation of this key Table I-2. Build Olneyville Principal Partners Providence neighborhood, focusing on investments in neighborhood, housing, people, and education. Detailed strategies have been developed, metrics have been identified to measure progress toward preferred outcomes, implementation partners are in place, and a variety of funding sources have been identified or secured to continue the Olneyville revitalization effort. There is strong momentum in place to move these goals and strategies from vision to reality. I-1 Chapter I. Executive Summary A. Target Site and Neighborhood But serious challenges remain. Foreclosure Imperial Knife mill building and land to the east is a critical issue in Olneyville, where block further isolate the site. This dense concentration Olneyville, one of the City of Providence’s 25 after block is marked by houses with boarded of very low income families has led to an insular neighborhoods, is rich in history, challenges, windows, exterior deterioration, and vandalism community that does not take advantage of the and assets. First settled in the early 1700s, it was typical of foreclosed and abandoned homes. assets, liabilities, and services available in the larger Christopher Olney’s construction of grist and Unemployment and crime rates are high; median Olneyville community. paper mills in 1785 on the Woonasquatucket household income and educational attainment are River, that formed the foundation for the existing comparatively low. neighborhood. The next century saw industries continue to develop—from foundries and forges These challenges are offset by many assets, most “Olneyville will be a vibrant, beautiful, to textile manufacturing and silverware production importantly the tremendous diversity of cultures and safe community where many —that attracted incoming immigrants which and different economic classes, interests, and different people choose to live and work in turn spurred residential development. After creative ideas. Its setting among the hills and along the restored Woonasquatucket World War II, textile industries moved south or valleys along the Woonasquatucket River is one River and mill buildings which remind us closed; employment was hard to find forcing many element of Olneyville’s unique physical fabric of the neighborhood’s history.” residents to move. As a result, Olneyville suffered that sets it apart from other neighborhoods in population loss through the 1960s and 1970s, but Providence. Together, its mix of housing types, — Olneyville Community Contract, began to stabilize in the 1980s; within the past historic mill buildings, riverside parks, walkable 2009, RI LISC decade, the neighborhood has seen a slight increase layout, and convenient location remain strong in population. bones for an attractive residential neighborhood. The area is fast attracting artists and the creative This industrial history has left a mark in class who embrace these qualities for living, Olneyville, with many large, vacant mill buildings working, and entertainment. scattered throughout the neighborhood and residential areas blighted by abandonment and Manton Heights, a 330-unit public housing disinvestment. Olneyville Square, once the bustling development on the western edge of Olneyville, is commercial center for the west side of Providence, targeted for redevelopment in the Build Olneyville is struggling to recover by slowly filling vacant Plan. It is isolated from the larger neighborhood storefronts, welcoming a mix of ethnic restaurants by both access—there is only one road in and out and small businesses, and working with store of the site—and topography—the development owners on beautification and branding activities. sits in a bowl below the surrounding residential community. The river to the south and the vacant I-2 Build Olneyville Plan B. Recent Olneyville Planning and Implementation Efforts The Olneyville neighborhood has benefited from urban development in the preparation of plans several comprehensive planning and community and goals for Olneyville. The ULI Rose Fellowship organizing processes over the last five years. Besides brought several national experts and leaders to the culling the neighborhood’s assets and needs to neighborhood and they developed achievable goals ensure they inform subsequent development plans, for commercial redevelopment, including plans for these processes cemented the organizational and the revitalization of Olneyville Square. Many of personal relationships that will be crucial to the the concepts identified through that process have success of Build Olneyville. Recent assessment and been incorporated in this Build Olneyville Plan. planning efforts that engaged Olneyville residents In the past several years there has also been and community stakeholders include the 2010 significant reinvestment