On March 16 at about 11:15pm, after 4 hours of testimony and discussion, the Providence Zoning Board voted 4 to 1 to deny an application for a variance that would allow a drive-thru coffee shop at 398 Hope Street, the most recent location of Clarke Florist. This property has been used as a florist since the 1880s.
The Board said that they had received the third-highest number of opposing letters ever for any zoning application regarding this variance request. Sixty-one folks showed up to speak in opposition.
But now the florist is likely to close and a viable use for this site must be developed. It is not enough to oppose things; one must also propose constructive solutions.
We have set up a Facebook Page (a "community") and a Facebook Group to work on this issue insofar as it is possible for the neighborhood to affect what happens with the property. An alternate use can be a working greenhouse that provides fresh produce and also teaches the hundreds of children that walk the neighborhood where food comes from, how to grow it themselves, and potential agricultural jobs they may want to aim at. To get the ball rolling in October, I brainstormed a lot of ideas and recently published them on the Providential Gardener. Perhaps some of these ideas may become part of a viable plan for revitalizing a business at this location.( See "How about an Urban Agriculture/Recycling Education & Training Center for Providence?")
This week the idea was tentatively named Hope EcoCenter. Anyone interested in this project can follow the news on the HopeEcoCenter PAGE. If you'd like to work on this and you are on Facebook, JOIN the Hope EcoCenter GROUP, or if you are not on Facebook, email me ([email protected]) and I'll connect you in some other way.
Facebook members are encouraged to LIKE the HopeEcoCenter PAGE to show community support. Please forward this post to anyone you think may be interested. There is a core of interested people already, and there will be a LOT of work to do to overcome obstacles and deal with the practical realities.
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