ProvPort Master Plan

The master plan process includes a broader area of analysis within the greater Port of Providence, including parcels not under ProvPort management.

GZA led the development of a master plan for 185-acre ProvPort site, one of the busiest deep-water ports in America’s northeast and one of only two deep water ports in new England. Our work also included an evaluation of a broader Study Area – including Port of Providence industrial areas shown above in purple as well as abutting Washington Park and South Providence Neighborhoods. The broader Study Area includes properties subject to long-term flood hazards, that are primarily water dependent industrial land uses, that share adjacent transportation infrastructure and include adjacent residential lands affected by environmental impacts of these land uses.

ProvPort entered a new 30-year lease with the City of Providence, after completing its first such lease since 1994. As a condition of this lease agreement, ProvPort agreed to prepare a 30-year master plan. This master plan’s goals were to: focus on methods to reduce environmental impacts to adjacent residential communities; be developed through significant community outreach and intergovernmental coordination; identify sustainability and community benefit projects to be supported by a 1% gross revenue tax on ProvPort; develop a site resiliency plan that responded to significant coastal flood vulnerability; identify land uses and supportive infrastructure over 5-year capital plan that generated higher and better land uses and generated jobs; reduce air and noise emissions with more environmentally sustainable uses; and grow the local and state tax base, all within the framework of transparency and collaborative decision-making with adjacent neighborhoods and the City of Providence. The work performed included a thorough existing conditions and long-range trends analysis, including a 50-year flood hazard model indicating depth of inundation with sea level rise, a detailed market and economic impact analysis as well as a competitive peer port analysis, and an environmental conditions analysis including hazmat, air quality, noise, and traffic. The final plan included land use and infrastructure plans based on market-based conditions within the scope of environmentally sustainable and resilient best practices and community, with implementation coordinated with City and State Policies, backed with financial strategies for implementation. neighborhoods.
 

Challenge

This year-long planning effort evaluated current port infrastructure and forecasted trends and conditions over the next three decades. The planning process navigated complicated long standing community concerns within the backdrop of known environmental impacts on adjacent environmental justice neighborhoods. During the process, dramatic changes in Federal support for critical plan components such as resilience, carbon neutrality, offshore wind, infrastructure funding, environmental justice, clean water and air regulations undermined many of the near to long-range funding sources and long supported objectives of the Port and City of Providence. In addition, long range flood modelling performed in coordination with University of Rhode Island Marine Affairs and Coastal Resilience Lab, identified potential catastrophic flood scenarios which must be overcome in the infrastructure panning phase for the project.
 

Solution

In coordination with the City of Providence, Waterson Terminals and Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC), GZA and their associated consultant team navigated the planning process through a deeply engaged public outreach process as shown in the diagram above. The MPAC, a curated advisory, was involved from the project onset, included elected representatives, neighborhood representatives, utilities, conservation groups, and educational institutions. The MPAC was established to facilitate communications with community and stakeholders. Together we:

1. Established a Scoping Process of Issues and Concern: to identify stakeholders; defined strategic goals and objectives; establish port use and purpose; define timelines; and schedule listening sessions to support community engagement. Once completed, a comprehensive Existing Conditions Assessment examined current port utilization/economic impact; infrastructure; environmental conditions; regulatory/zoning framework; and the port’s context and community impact.
2. Defined the Existing Conditions and Long-Term Planning Framework through a determination of Goals and Objectives. We identified economic/market trends; infrastructure demand/capacity; resiliency and security risks; population trends; and regulatory / political considerations. After distilling the long-range trends and conditions, the team then identified constraints and opportunities that defined the master plan: port marketing and economic positioning; infrastructure options; resilient and sustainable operations; community benefits; economic, regulatory and political risks; and financing options.
3. Established Priorities for both ProvPort Operations, Market Based Land Use Transitions and Need Infrastructure Enhancements.
4. Defined Strategies and Plans to be implemented in 5-year increments – paired with funding strategies. With the data, analysis and feedback on the first phases in hand, the team defined and illustrated three 30-year long-range build-out scenarios. For each scenario, infrastructure, community benefits, environmental mitigation, resiliency measures were defined. Order of magnitude capital improvement costs compared to economic impact were prepared, and each scenario was scored.
5. Presented a Final 30-year Master Plan that included priority lists for Community Benefit and Sustainability Projects to be implemented in coordination with City of Providence on behalf of the Community over the term of the Master Plan. The final step of the technical master planning process refined the selected scenario, incorporating input and details from community and steering committee feedback. The plan adopted by ProvPort and presented to the Providence City Council included revised strategic priorities; actionable five-year phases for the 30-year capital plan (including community and sustainability projects); an approach to finance master plan investments; agile strategies to address risks; and defined framework for future master plan review and update.
6. Facilitated the preparation of marketing and grant materials for implementation and a governance and transparency processes to assure successful implementation of the plan. Public-facing communications supported ProvPort’s realization of the master plan. To that end, the master plan team developed clear, informative, engaging content for various target audiences (including the community, elected officials and lobbyists, institutional partners, existing and future port users, and potential investment partners). Varied messaging vehicles were employed to reach the desired audiences.
    

Benefit

GZA’s multi-disciplinary team of planners, engineers, and scientists and specialty subconsultants completed the road map ProvPort sought to successfully guide its operations and growth and to benefit the surrounding community of Providence.