Stakeholders open to master plan for Sear and Shaws site

The three largest landholders in the largely underused areas north of Smithfield Avenue and west of North Main Street have agreed in principle to participate in a joint master planning process should one be developed. So have the city planning departments of both Providence and Pawtucket. After hearing about these conversations from North Main Street Project consultant Jonathan Harris at our October 7 meeting, City Councilman Kevin Jackson and State Representative Gordon Fox agreed to support SNA should it decide to undertake a planning project. The issue will be taken up on Oct 27 at the next SNA Board meeting and revisited at the next North Main Street workshop on Nov. 11.

Oct. 7: Problems and potential at Sears

   

For decades now, the empty Sears has symbolized neglect of North Main Street.

In the minds of many neighbors one empty building, the abandoned former Sears department store, is both the leading cause and major consequence of North Main’s problems. Yet, big as it is, this property is just one corner of a vast swath of unused and under-used land and buildings that includes the former Shaws Plaza and abandoned buildings all the way to and across the Pawtucket City Line.

Please join us on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at the offices of Jewish Family Services, 959 North Main Street, for a presentation and discussion on the problems holding this area back and the potential for breaking the development deadlock.