Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal

« Providence's 6th homicide of 2008: Stabbing victim dies | Today | Bacteria count closes Somerset beach to swimming »

June 17, 2008

DEM gives nod to N. Smithfield shopping complex plan

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- State environmental regulators have signed off on the proposed Dowling Village shopping complex project on Route 146A, issuing permits for the remaining three phases of the 133-acre development, state officials said today.

Though the development still must be reviewed and approved by the town’s Planning Board, lawyer K. Joseph Shekarchi, representing the project’s builder, Bucci Development Inc., said the Department of Environmental Management approval should remove concerns about the project’s impact on the surrounding environment.

“This was a big one,” Shekarchi said.

Bucci wants to build, in multiple phases, nearly 600,000 square feet of retail space on approximately 133 acres on the east side of Eddie Dowling Highway, Route 146A near the Woonsocket city line, starting roughly at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island and running south to just before the Route 146 split.

The buildings will range in size from 11,000-square-feet to 120,000-square-feet big-box retailers. Plans include three restaurants, a three-story office building and 76 townhouses.

Bucci Development has estimated that tax revenues from the businesses in the complex could generate at much as $1.5 million a year in tax payments to the town.

-- Journal staff writer John Hill

Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe said he was pleased at the announcement.

“DEM was very thorough in what they did,” Lowe said. “The timing is fortunate because we could use the tax dollars to offset things.”

But at what price, critics of the project have said.

“Say goodbye to the quality of life that North Smithfield has enjoyed,” Town Council member and former town planner Paul Zwolenski said.

He said the increase in economic activity would also bring increased demand for municipal services, and that traffic to and from the complex would spill onto residential side streets

“This is going to cost the town of North Smithfield through police, fire and emergency medical technicians, regardless of the taxes they have promised to town,” Zwolenski said. “The quality of life will change dramatically.”

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:47 PM | Permalink

June 17, 2008

DEM gives nod to N. Smithfield shopping complex plan

Comments

Post a comment