NORTH PROVIDENCE – The new Extra Space Storage facility being built at 1204 Douglas Ave. is much taller than what the Planning Board approved in 2017, making it highly visible to direct abutters.
Town Council President Dino Autiello told The Local Insider he and Councilor Mario Martone have been doing research on the facility near the Shaw’s grocery store, adding that he sympathizes with neighbors. He said he’s concerned about how it has morphed from what it was originally supposed to be.
This is anything but the eight one-level storage buildings with rows next to them, said Autiello. The way it was originally described, he added, residents on Cushing Street wouldn’t necessarily even be able to see the buildings.
“It’s concerning that it was one story and now it looks like two or three,” Autiello said.
“As the only council person who was on the council when it was approved, this was absolutely not what we voted for, what is being built right now,” he said.
The Planning Board originally granted conditional master-plan approval for the self-storage project proposed by Douglas Avenue Associates and U.S. Development II. The plan was then contingent on the council approving an amendment to the comprehensive plan and a zoning, as well as the Zoning Board approving the variance and special-use permit.
The applicants originally sought a zone change from commercial general/commercial village to manufacturing limited to allow for the facility, as self storage is not allowed in commercial village or commercial general zones. The council then amended the comprehensive plan to recommend rezoning the site to manufacturing limited and change the property zoning to manufacturing limited.
Autiello said there was also supposed to be a 30-foot buffer and a paper street (street only found on paper) where trees would be planted.
He said the changes to something much bigger appeared to be made through an administrative decision, and not through any town boards. Plans through that avenue are only supposed to be changed up to 20 percent, he emphasized.
“I’m not happy with this,” he said. “This is absolutely not what we voted for. We voted on what was consistent with the Planning Board’s decision.”
Shane Piche was the lone Planning Board member to vote against the project back in 2017.
Cushing Street resident Louie Charello said he feels neighbors were left out of the process because they would have been a hard no on the project.
Planning Director Brent Wiegand confirmed that the change was made administratively at the recommendation of their attorney, Kelley Morris Salvatore. Building up to 35 feet is allowed by right in town, he said, so they didn’t have a lot of choice in approving something larger without further Planning Board review.
“If it wasn’t them, it could have been someone else,” Wiegand said, adding that the whole idea of further Planning Board review would have been for how the property was used, not for dimensions of buildings.
“They were within the dimensional regulations of the zoning ordinance,” he said.
Autiello said they don’t have a lot of recourse at this point, other than the town withholding a certificate of occupancy at least until a buffer zone is built up with appropriate greenery.
He said there wasn’t a lot of controversy around this proposal back in 2017, in part because of the limited scope of what was being proposed, with the neighbors not really expected to see it. That was also before the real storage facility boom, he said.
Autiello and other councilors have said they’re happy to be holding the line against another storage facility off Mineral Spring Avenue after seeing what’s happening now on Douglas Avenue.
Neighbors back in 2017 said they were concerned about traffic, particularly from large trucks, but officials said the planned units were small and unlikely to attract 18-wheelers.
