We're here tonight for the ad hoc bridge realignment property advisory committee.

Um Newport public workshop.

Um so we'll jump right into it and uh Colin, do you want to get it going?

I already want to start this.

Let's do it.

Hello, working.

Thank you.

All right.

So lots of you're gonna see lots of technological challenges uh with me tonight, so I apologize.

Uh again, Colin Kane, um uh I chaired the North End uh advice uh bridge realignment advisory commission um exceptionally ably supported uh by my fellow commissioners, Council Pannock, uh Jeff Deal, Tom Gibson, uh Roy Louth, and Jan Brody, who unfortunately could not be here tonight.

Uh but uh uh you know we're I don't know if excitement is the right term, uh, but we're pleased to be able to report out uh in a more conversational way uh the work that the commission uh you know basically uh generated in our 18-month uh study period.

Um the first point here is just a review, and and I also apologize for the font of my PowerPoint.

I haven't personally put a PowerPoint together in 10 years.

Um every time I tried to make it bigger, it blew up.

Uh uh, but you've you've read the substance of the report, uh, but we'll quickly review it so we can open up for questions and conversation.

Uh our assignment you know was to evaluate the status of the realignment project and understand the regulated uh by both DOT and Federal Highway disposition process of any of the uh DOT excess parcels.

We were also tasked with evaluating uh the physical and due diligence condition of those excess parcels and the surrounding private and publicly held properties.

Uh we were tasked to identify potential options uh of you know legal options of an entity that could serve as both the fee owner of the excess parcels as well as the we'll call it the permitting authority or disposition authority or redevelopment authority uh of the north end.

And then we were tasked with putting together some uh some next steps, recommended next steps.

I think it's very important, and we've said this uh in many settings, uh, but it's very important uh that the findings of the commission are 1,000 percent unrelated to the future use uh of any of the north end.

Um whether it's all open space, whether it is the re uh the daylighting of Elizabeth Brooke, whether it's housing, whether it's blue economy buildings, uh, whether it's a splash pad, uh the things that need to happen in the north end, um they all have to happen to support any one of those uses because of the current conditions of the property, um, and you know, the the permitting challenges that its current conditions present.

Um so the commission did not uh render an opinion, uh make recommendations around what should happen in the north end, uh what should happen in the north end uh should be a result of uh you know what the city of Newport's objectives are, what the neighborhood objectives are, uh what can be permitted, uh what we can we can afford to make happen, uh, and what the market is, you know, relative to any vertical construction or even horizontal improvements.

And please interrupt mayor any time.

We all drive by the north end, walk on the north end.

And everyone has, I think, a very keen understanding from at least from a visual perspective of the current condition of the property.

What we're talking about here from the RIDOT, the DOT access parcels is roughly 25 acres in four parcels that have been identified by DOT.

In fact, they've been recorded with the city of Newport after the Federal Highway Administration approved them as non-necessary for any future highway or DOT work.

So that that is a major and significant step forward.

And basically defines the completion, although we hope we get the landscape cleaned up and some signs, but the completion of the bridge realignment project on the north end.

We can see, look at this.

Did I mess it up already?

Look at it.

Oh, here we go.

The DOT parcels kind of form the spine, if you would, uh of the north end.

But they're surrounded by what we'll describe as underdeveloped, uh underdeveloped.

At the time they were not underveloped, they they responded to the marketplace.

Uh but today we look at them and we we we have a shopping center with a giant field of parking.

Uh we have uh a city laydown yard, a public works yard, uh that you know basically is a is a building stuck with a lot of service parking and public vehicles, a tradesman center uh that again is low, low-scale, low density buildings surrounded by public parking.

And you can see that pattern uh throughout the north end.

Uh that makes sense.

This was a dead end, right?

And so, you know, uh outside of a Navy base, uh, so the dead end respond, the market responded to the kind of the dead end and somewhat industrial characteristics of the North End.

Uh but within that, you know, we look at the DOT parcels, there's opportunity, not within the DOT parcels necessarily themselves, although there's some, but the larger opportunity is the combination of the DOT parcels and the surrounding and adjacent parcels.

We have meaningful infrastructure challenges.

Um even today, uh when it when conditions are, I'll say wrong, uh, the public works, we have to get trucks there to keep the sewer system running.

Um the RK Center is served by a private sewer line that runs north on JT O'Connell.

Uh, there is effectively no or quite limited electrical gas and water distribution, uh no telecom and no sewer services.

Now that is a daunting task to talk about a lack of infrastructure.

Uh but you know, as I say in many public hearings, we didn't stop building sewer when Rome fell.

Um, you know, we know how to do this.

Uh the city has a very capable engineering team.

Um, and and the the solutions, you know, are there.

There are places to plug into.

We, you know, there the capacity issues that can be expanded.

Uh, but today it'd be hard to put a building, a park, even with a park with you know, public heads, public restrooms, uh, because of the lack of utility infrastructure.

It has severe flood conditions.

Um I know Roy knows uh we had that pretty heavy rainstorm, uh, I don't know, maybe three or four months ago, uh, you know, and it basically shuts down some roadways.

Uh so we have heavy, heavy rain, um, especially when it's linked to high tide because all that water drains into the bay through the Navy base, uh, you know, we have significant flooding.

To further complicate making the north end better, it it is characterized by lots and lots of freshwater wetlands.

Okay, some that have been there a long time, uh, some that have formed as a result of natural flooding, some that are brand new.