And then in the meantime, I'll turn it over to Margaret to say hello.

Good evening, everyone.

Thanks for being here, Planning Board members, members of the city council, members of the public, planning board staff.

This is an update from the consultants, as Mayor Holder just said.

And that'll be the meat of the plan.

Ultimately, the plan will be drafted.

It'll come to the planning board for review.

We'll decide whether or not to recommend it to the city council.

Then it will be over to the city council.

And that'll be a little later in the process.

So we're still in the in the process of gathering information and input and understanding where we are in the process.

I think you'll find a lot of the data that's been collected is really very interesting, helps us understand our community, our challenges and our opportunities going forward.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Trish.

Great.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Um I'd like to first thank everybody for spending one of the most beautiful nights of the summer here with us.

It really means a lot.

It's really important work that we're getting done here.

Um I think I know everybody in the room, but uh for the record, my name is Trish Reynolds.

I'm the planning director for the city.

Um I'd like to again welcome everybody here to the workshop.

Uh, we're at an important point in the development of the city's comprehensive plan, and we want to take this opportunity to check in uh with both the city council and the planning board.

This workshop is an excellent place to start.

Uh it's an opportunity for both the planning board and the council to hear and discuss progress to date and hear about what comes next.

Um, our consulting team led by Interface Studio is in Newport for almost uh most of this week to work with the community on the next level in the development of the plan.

Um, with that, I know she needs no introduction.

Everybody I'm sure has met and remembers Mindy Watts.

She is our uh project lead on the comp plan, and I promise you're gonna really like this presentation.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, everybody.

It's nice to um be in Newport in the the famous high season.

It's our our first visit um of the summer, but um, I guess our third or fourth time before uh city council and uh the planning board.

So nice to be back here with you all.

There we go.

Um we have two hours allotted tonight.

Um our presentation will not take that full amount of time, so uh we're happy to have discussion and answer questions.

Um, but the plan for tonight is to briefly introduce who else here with me.

Um provide an update on where we are in the process to um share the draft vision statement as it's um gone through several rounds of iteration and revision.

And then uh really um because the comprehensive plan is just so much to chew on, uh it's 11 different topics.

We've chosen really uh three main uh topics that uh all intersect with tourism, which we know has been a major point of discussion and um debate lately.

And so that's really what we've teed up for conversation tonight, and then um we're happy to touch on other subjects towards the end of the meeting.

Um so that's the the agenda.

Uh as Trish mentioned, I'm Mindy Watts from Interface Studio.

We're the lead city planners um at the helm of the team, and I'm here with my colleague Kylie Pierce.

Uh, we're based out of Philadelphia, and Kylie's in our New York office.

And Kevin Highley from Nenigrip Partners, the economist on our team is uh here with me tonight as well.

And so I'll be sharing the mic with Kevin.

Okay.

Um so I was last here in uh May, as I mentioned, and it was a whirlwind week.

We had in addition to briefing the city council and planning board, we had around 15 focus groups and a meeting with our advisory committee.

So we were met with I think, yeah, 121 different participants at those focus groups.

Some people came for more than one, and so we had a really robust series of conversations.

And at that stage, we were workshopping what are the goals, the high-level ideas that we want to put forth in the comprehensive plan.

And so we've moved past that to something you know a little bit more specific, and that those are some strategies that we're bringing for your consideration tonight, and that we'll be continuing to workshop and bring back to the public at large at the end of August.

Since our last time together, we've also had a several meetings with our advisory committee.

So again, we are grateful to the work that City Council put in to help assemble that body.

We've had a really great series of conversations, and that group is not here to just say yes, they're here to challenge us and hold us accountable.

And I think the work has gotten much better already for their involvement.

So thank you for bringing those people into the process with us.

So here we are for what's on our agenda for this week.

We have this session tonight, and then we've taken those 15 focus groups and we've repackaged them into four larger meetings.

So we'll be meeting with two groups tomorrow.

The first one will touch on land use, economic development, and housing.

The second one will focus on city services and facilities, water, meaning mostly utilities, and transportation.

We'll have an evening meeting in the north end with uh residents and representatives of the health equity zone.

Um Wednesday morning, we've been invited to listen in at the social services situation table in Middletown.

So that's to help us round out some of our understanding of city services and facilities.

And then we'll do our final two focus groups.

So we'll meet with a group talking about open space and recreation as well as historic and cultural resources, and then the fourth session is about energy, natural resources, and natural hazards and climate change.

And we will conclude our trip this visit with our fourth meeting of the advisory committee.

Oops.

So just a reminder of where we are in the process.

We've been working with you all for a year now, and we are at the point now where we're drafting strategies and starting to assemble the content that will form your new comprehensive plan update.

And that work will continue through the summer, and we're working toward having a draft ready come fall.

So here we are.

Um that's kind of the big white screens show all the briefings for for your two bodies, um, council and planning board.

Um we will be back in August.

I think the 27th is the evening where we are hoping that the weather will be lovely, like tonight, and we'll be able to pop up in the plaza outside of City Hall so that folks can come and engage with the material, and we can have some conversations about the full set of 11 topics that the comprehensive plan must grapple with and all of the ideas that the comprehensive plan will contain.

And so that is our chance to really open the dialogue up to the um you know anyone who's interested beyond uh the deeper conversations that we'll be having this week with the focus groups.

So, like Trish said, Um, we are as we start to assemble the plan, we start broad with a vision statement and then we work towards more and more specificity.

And so the last time we were here, we had a draft of a vision statement, and we had a draft of some goals that were updated from the current comprehensive plan that are is on the books from 2017.

And so that those have been revised based on the feedback we heard in May, and now we are at a place where we're we have some strategies that are starting to come together, and um we're here to discuss those this week.

But before I go there, I just wanted to take a minute to talk through the vision statement.

Um, I won't read it, is the vision statement from the 2017 comprehensive plan, and just a few notes that um struck us.

Um the prior vision statement didn't mention resilience or climate change.

It didn't really touch on housing affordability and availability.

So I think those are just examples from us on just how much can change in a community in the span of 10 years and why it's important to do these comprehensive plan updates.

Um, and so we knew from the outset that part of our work with this comprehensive plan update would be to acknowledge some of these major issues and tensions between quality of life for residents and tourism as a primary economic driver in the city, um, needing to seek balance between growth and preservation, needing to think about infrastructure needs and resource constraints.

So we took a stab at uh writing a draft vision statement.

We shared it with uh the comprehensive plan advisory committee, and we got some really great feedback.

They told us, you know, it's a little too long and too wordy.

Um we they said, you know, we really want this written from a uh residents' perspective, and we really want it to be grounded in the issues of today.

So it's good to talk about the vision and where we want to head, but how do we understand like what's the starting point now?

Um they told us, you know, how can we use language that is really um accessible and like makes sense to people who live here?

And so um we have two slides a preamble that provides that context and sets the stage, and then a vision statement.

So I will read this.

Um, and uh this is something that we're happy to receive comments on either after I'm done reading or um at the end of the presentation if you prefer.

But so what we wrote to as the preamble to set the stage and to acknowledge that we want to center the community in this plan is that though Newport is a destination that draws visitors from around the world for us, meaning your community, Newport is home, a quaint and close-knit island community.

In this moment, as we envision the next 20 years in Newport's story, we face real challenges that threaten life as we know it.

Housing has become unaffordable for many.

Year-round living wage jobs are hard to find, congested streets make daily errands a drag.

Visitors now stay where neighbors once lived.

Land is limited, but development pressure is building.

And meanwhile, extreme weather has become the norm, and aging infrastructure approaches a breaking point.

Looking to the future, we see that newporters must work together today to guide needed change, deepen bonds between neighbors, and protect this beloved place we so proudly call home.

So I hope that we haven't shared this yet with our advisory committee, but I hope that that preamble sets the stage in a way that resonates.

And so the the idea is that that leads into like where do we want to go in the next 10 years or the 20 years that the plans horizon has to address.

So going forward, the vision is Newport will be a city of extraordinary coastal beauty and rich cultural heritage, where an exceptional quality of life for residents is enriched by its role as a vibrant year-round destination.

We will remain committed to protecting Newport's natural resources and authentic harbor identity while embracing innovative growth that honors our historic charm.

A forward-thinking leader in resilience, sustainability, and connectivity, we will ensure Newport is a community where people of all ages, backgrounds, and ability can live, learn, work, thrive, and enjoy the waters that surround our island home.

So that if we have buy-in from the advisory committee and from these two bodies and from your constituents, um really it serves as like the the picture of where are we today and what are we hoping we can achieve through implementing this plan in the next 10 and 20 years?

So I can pause in case there's any feedback in the moment, or we can come back to it at the end if if you prefer.

Yes.

There we go.

Um, just reacting to the word harbor.

Identity in that we have that for sure, and it's great.

Uh-huh.

But we also have the cliffwalk, we have the beaches, we have the ocean drive.

Is it a word that we better to try to capture more of what we have?

Okay, so the full coastline, not just specific to the harbor.

Okay, that's a good piece of feedback.

Thank you.

I have one little comment.

Um, I think this is good, but I would like to understand how the council or the administration or any boards can actually make all of this happen.

How much control do we really have?

And um, people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can live, learn, work, thrive, and you know, I mean, it's just is that something that we can actually control?

Sure.

Um, well, yeah, so I think the vision is aspirational, and it's meant to say these are the values of the community, these are things that we care about and want to protect and preserve.

Then the goals get a little more specific, and then the strategy is even still more specific.

And they're all we're supposed to, you know, check our work to say like are the ideas that the plan puts forth in service of this vision.

So, you know, I think there are certain things that city government has more control over or less control over.

Um, but I think that uh the vision statement does a little bit of a balancing act of saying like this is what we care about as a community, and we recognize that um and the plan the implementation strategy will will point to like what are the some of the key partners and um other entities that have to work with the city or work with you know across municipal boundaries, et cetera, to to implement this.

So I think you're it's fair to say like that the city may not have full control over all of these, um, but it's meant to say like what do we care about and what do we wish for our city?

Yeah, I guess when if somebody were to read that, they would think that we would have control over those things.

And I think that we need to stick with things that we can control and not something that's so aspirational or something that's you know, um relies on a lot of other things.

Okay, okay.

Um to Lynn's point, I think maybe switching up the language so that it sounds like something that we will work towards because it kind of sounds like a place of arrival.

Okay, and all of these things are lifelong, like a lifelong process.

So you're not going to arrive there.

Um, so maybe the insure word is the thing that is making people feel like it's something that we're going to obtain short term.

Okay.

So write it in like the future aspirational tense, not just like that we're already there.

Okay.

Yeah.

How well does this tie to the vision statement from the city strategic plan?

Well, I think good question.

Um, I don't I've had it on prior slides, but I think that there's a lot of overlap.

I mean, that talks about um education, it talks about city staff, it talks about um diversifying the economy.

So I I think that some of that you'll see comes up uh maybe in a little bit more of a specific way in the goals that come with the each of the topics for the comprehensive plan, but um we can certainly do a loop back to um to kind of align those statements.

Thank you.

Yep.

All right, anything else before we carry on?

Um I will just add that uh there are a few larger concepts that we're calling through lines, and I think it's something that we've heard through the process.

Um there's an interest in saying, like, we know that people are really core to what we're doing here with this planning work.

We know that um Newport's um existence surrounded by water, salt water is core to the identity of this place, and we know that resiliency is an imperative in this in this day and age.

And so um each of those ideas touches all of the aspects of the comprehensive plan.

And so um, those are three words that the we're calling out in the vision statement, and that we will be um doing an additional layer of connecting dots to say, like there are certain topics that will show up in each of the chapters of the comprehensive plan.

And so those are people, salt waters that surround your beautiful city and um resilience.

So, like I said, we have 11 different topics that the comprehensive plan will touch on.

Most of these are mandated by the state of Rhode Island, and um uh there's a lot of overlap, and it's like a ripple effect.

And so I think that's part of what our conversation tonight will touch on is that um is the relationships between some of these uh topics, these core um chapters of the comprehensive plan.

So um, like I said at the outset, 11 topics is like more than we can chew on in uh one night.

And so um we just wanted to acknowledge that we're only talking about a few topics tonight, and uh that there is a lot of really excellent and fresh recent planning work that has come before us, and so um part of our work is to read all of those plans and um check with planning and development staff on what's been implemented and what hasn't, and what is the status of things, and be able to incorporate um the ideas that are still relevant and on the table from all of these prior plans.

And so um uh that work has we have massive spreadsheets and some of the ideas you'll see pulled forward in tonight's presentation, and some of them please know that we are um have done that work and um are we know we're not starting from scratch here.

So tonight's discussion, uh, like I said, is really gonna talk about um a few key topics, and um we chose them because as we understand it, they're like the the topics that are most in public discourse uh in this moment, and so they respond to issues that have been raised by residents throughout the process, um, and all of them intersect with tourism.

So the research and the ideas that we've brought to discuss tonight are um pertain to transportation and circulation, city infrastructure, and the economy and economic development.

And so in each of these topics, um, we know that pressures from growing crowds can stress these systems and um threaten the the Newport experience that is so prized by residents.

That is why visitors come here to enjoy and it is changing the feeling of the community, and it is um challenging core service delivery.

And so um I'm gonna pass the mic to Kevin to walk through some of the research just to help contextualize and put some perspective on um tourism in Newport.

Some of this is in response to questions that were raised by the planning board earlier in the process to say, can you help us understand Newport um and how we compare to other places that are that are somewhat like Newport in certain ways.

And so um Kevin's gonna take us through a little bit of this research and then we'll we'll jump into the strategies.

Thanks.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realize you probably do need glasses?

This is gonna be fun.

Um so thank you.

I appreciate the opportunity to do this just as a intro, because I've been kind of the disembodied voice in a lot of uh meetings.

Uh I live in Boston.

I lived in Rhode Island for a long time.

Um my kids actually, one lives in Jamestown, one lives in one lives in uh Newport, and I lived in Narganzett for a long time.

I've been a member of the Newport Chamber of Commerce since my company got started 25 plus years ago.

So I love the city uh uh a lot.

And with that also comes the understanding of certain realities, and as it just says there, this is the city would be fine without tourism, but the way the tourism is doesn't the way you have tourism right now and the way the economy is structured, you cannot have some of the things that you have without tourism.

Um as an example, the harbor front, about 11% of the property tax comes from just less than five percent of the land area.

Uh half of the property tax is now generated by non-residential residential property.

So just think about that for a second.

You got about 16 million dollars of year revenue that are associated with the summer in different forms, everything from parking to beach fees that all pay for other parts of the city.

And the fact of the matter is, despite a very long conversation that that I have been a part of in different ways for over 20 some years, there is not another industry other than the military, which you know predates all of this that has the opportunity to replace that in any time in the near term.

Um so 35% of the jobs in Newport are tourism related, about 20% of the residents actually work in tourism.

So, in other ways to think about it, is that a lot of people say these are jobs for New Porters, a lot of the jobs are not actually for Newporters.

And the other thing, too, and I know that this is a place that cares a lot about um local, is it tourism-related industries provide about 18% of the people who are self-employed, so it is also the pathway to entrepreneurism.

But it's not monolithic.

You have a lot of different forms of tourism.

Um, and we kind of broke this into two different perspectives the demand side estimates and the supply side estimates.

So on the demand side, uh, you've got about 1,800 uh hotel room nights per per day per year on average.

In a July 25 last year, you had 1567 in a given night.

There are 95,000 cruise ship passengers.

Road traffic estimates are protected now because they're national security issues, but uh the Sicon at eight, the Sakan is about 40,000 uh per day.

Mount Hope is 17,000, but 55% of those are commuters, and the Newport Bridge is 32,000 per day.

The thing that's really interesting is the swing between December to July is it there's a 13,000 average car per day difference.

There's so that December, which is the lowest of bridge traffic, or it's December, January.

It's the it's off because of the calendar issue when it gets reported.

July is 13,000 more cars per day than your trough.

So let's talk about the supply side.

This is still a bit of a work in progress.

There's about 2400 hotel bed and breakfast rooms.

Um, there's another 1,500 in Middletown.

Uh, there are 391 registered short-term rentals.

There's another 460 some in um in Middletown.

You've got uh 938 moorings, 1300 slips roughly, that very much depends on boat size.

And then your ferry capacity is about 2,000 people a day.

The thing that is important to know is that there's the auto-oriented side, there's 16,000 parking spaces in the city.

5,000 of them are public.

So the thing that we now know, and this is thanks to uh Discover Newport.

It this is data that has the city that they have not historically had, which is who's actually coming.

And there are three buckets.

So one is residents, so people who live in Newport County.

The other one is local visitors, so that's people who live inside of 50 miles, and then non-local visitors, which are people that go from 50 miles or more.

Over half of the people coming are from Providence County and Bristol County.

And they're coming in cars.

And they also spend money differently.

So if you look at all the spending, the overnighters spend a lot more money, not surprisingly, than residents or local visitors do.

Although the very interesting thing is that when you start looking at restaurants, residents and local visitors have about the same proportion of spend, which is another way of saying the amount of restaurants and pieces of entertainment like that you have here are a benefit you all get to take advantage of as well.

And just the fact of the matter is they're all interrelated.

And one of the dilemmas is that some of the pressure points that Mindy was beginning to talk about, not only do they affect the residents as well, but they also will begin affecting the tourism experience.

And it's everything from how expensive stuff is getting to getting congested, to I mean, I know in my case, like there's certain days I do not would not come into Newport.

Um just the housing situation is going on with the dark homes, and the issue with the dark homes becomes, and this is one of the things we heard during our focus groups with the businesses, particularly locally owned businesses who don't have a corporate parent to carry them on a cash basis.

January, February, March are tough months.

Um, and so and the more and more dark homes that you get, the more problematic that becomes, and then also you start losing other things related revenues to things like water and other services.

So one of the things that was asked of us was what does tourism in Newport look like compared to some other places?

And so we basically came up with um three sets of cities uh westerly, uh, which so it includes Mesquamakit, um, Watch Hill, uh not Quanty, um, and Wicapog.

Uh we did the Hamptons, St.

Augustine, Florida, and Key West, and then Discover Newport's comp cities, which were Charleston, Savannah, and Annapolis.

And we're just gonna share with you a few pieces of information.

So the first one here, and this is where I wish I would have my glasses on.

Um, that's okay, I can think I can figure out, yeah.

So basically, what you see here is Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Hamptons.

You say, well, how is it possible to have 128% housing stock?

It's because they have more housing than residents.

And you all are at 19%, it's a big number, but it's not among the highest of those numbers.

Um the other thing is expensive is relative.

So, particularly when you're comparing to some of these communities.

Newport is on the higher end, this is the median home value.

Um, we use this one because we can actually do it on a comparison basis.

You can see the Hamptons, uh Key West, um, you know, there's places that are more expensive, and there are places that are less expensive.

So you're kind of in that middle range.

The issue is income, which is you have among the lowest resident incomes of this pool.

And remember, these are just residents, so these do not count summer people, these are just people who are full-time residents, and this is one of the issues is that your both your median household income and your median family income are a little bit less.

Westerly is an outlier because as you all know with westerly, um, but you can see the rest of it.

Even Martha's Vineyard in Nantucket have higher incomes than you all have among their residents, and then when you get to Charleston and Savannah and Napolis, um, those are much bigger places with innapolis, not so much, but the other two places are much, much bigger.

And then jobs by sector, this is a little bit of an eye-burn.

Um you'll see the thing that's boxed is arts entertainment, recreation, hospitality, which is food and uh hospital hotels, and then retail, which we use as kind of a proxy for jobs.

And I know there are jobs in transportation because of the ferries and things like that, but we couldn't parse them out for everybody.

Um, and you can see that you have a little bit, you have one of the highest concentrations of jobs in tourism of all of these places.

The thing that's also very notable is goods producing includes manufacturing and construction.

And while you've done very well in its building and things, you can see that these other places have a lot more construction activity going on than you all, which is driving some of their employment.

Sure.

Yeah.

Newport is 10 square miles.

Yep, seven landmass and three underwater.

If you I looked at some of these places that you're yeah, I mean, they're much bigger than Newport.

So that certainly puts a burden.

When we're talking about housing, we're basically built out.

People can look next door and see into the window of somebody else.

I I don't disagree with you at all.

Um that's one of the reasons why we included Key West.

I actually lived in Key West last year.

Um you and Key West are very, very similar with very similar dynamics in that regard.

And hold that thought because that's a very, very important thought as we talk about diversifying the economy.

Right.

Um and again, to your point, these Charleston Savannah are much bigger, but they are they're considered your comps from a tourism perspective.

And so we included them.

Oh Kevin, sure.

How does the military fit into the into this?

Did you include them in the work?

They're included in the jobs numbers.

Yeah, but where do they fit in the job number?

In what way?

I I didn't see a million.

Oh no, they were not, they're not in that.

They were not in that.

We just wanted to pull out the inner tape.

They'd be they would be listed as government jobs.

Oh, so they're not in that.

They're not in that list now.

There's another slide that's a million dollars.

I would like you to know that I did the first economic development study for the big it is.

First off, for the public, please let us go through this demonstration and then we'll have questions and comments afterwards.

But the reason why we didn't include it is because we wanted to include just private sector pieces.

I know that I know that the Navy is very, very large.

And it would be in the it would be listed as in the government.

And so actually, I would suspect that Charleston and Savannah and Apollo would actually be much bigger.

So they're not included in those either.

Well, it's percentage.

Yeah, maybe not.

Yeah.

Well, I'm just saying this is a percentage of the job.

So it's 35%.

The Navy's by far the largest.

Right.

So it was about 4,000 here locally, I think actually in the city.

Um so that would be the that would be the number.

Um, but yeah, it's not in there.

But again, we were just trying to get what is tourism look like, not what the overall the prior previously we did the entire economy and the military is in that one.

Next.

Mindy.

Okay.

So uh that's the context, that's the the research.

And I think um this the balance of the presentation has to do with um strategies that find ways to maximize revenue from tourism without compromising quality of life for residents, and uh find ways to diversify the economies so that the city can become less dependent on tourism.

Um so even though we're only talking about three of these topics, like we're still kind of cherry-picking a subset of recommendations just so that we can get through the content.

Um, but I think what we're trying to say is um the housing chapter, the housing plan was updated in 2024.

It's got a lot of fresh ideas, and we will have some strategies to add to that mix.

Um, but these are the places where we think that the um there's the most need for this comprehensive plan update to weigh in and help to shift the dynamic in terms of how tourism functions in the city and how to protect and preserve resident quality of life.

So we're gonna talk through three sections of strategies, congestion management or multimodal transportation topics, um, infrastructure burden and improvements, and then economic diversification and the newport experience.

And so I'm gonna do the first two, and then I'll pass it back to Kevin on the last one.

And certainly, you know, some of the people who are in that swell maybe are coming for work and maybe they have a place to park that's a private lot somewhere, but we can see that there's like a really significant share of the or what we are understand as a significant share of the tourism impact is coming from these day trippers.

And that that number, that 13,000 number is like, I guess the hotel room count is like 10% of that, you know, number in terms of the cars that are going over the bridge during the peak season.

And so that is the reason that we're starting this conversation off with congestion management.

Could I could I ask you a question?

Yes.

How does that 13,000 compare to traffic that had happened in the 80s, 90s?

And how much more traffic does that mean?

Can you give it some context?

I mean, I remember traffic jams in the 80s.

So I mean, you know, it hasn't changed.

It's not gone up tremendous amount.

Okay.

Because it seems on its face, it seems, oh wow, but I I don't know what what's the difference.

We have it going back to like 1985.

It's prized.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think it's always the thing about it is this has always been a day tripper market, and it's just never been seen that way.

But it actually affects the bigger.

I agree.

Um, but the other thing, can I just ask you one other question?

When you talk about the 16 million dollars and the taxes that come in fees, sorry, okay.

You did not include the property taxes on those properties.

No, but but the the two things before that were one half of the resident, one half of the residential property taxes actually paid by non-residential.

Right.

Okay, but I just want to make sure that the property tax portion is in there.

Um, and the other thing I just want to mention is that we talk about our um salaries being lower, but we also have 20% of subsidized housing.

And that I don't know if other communities have that.

And we have the highest percentage in the state.

So how does that impact that number as well?

Thank you.

Um, so I think you guys can tell me this.

You don't need this slide for me to tell you this, but um, we just wanted to acknowledge that um, you know, congestion in the summertime is a real issue.

We've been hearing it since we started our work here.

And um, on the weekends, downtown is you know, the most congested area in Rhode Island in the state.

Um, this was something that came up as a real pain point in the survey that we uh fielded for this project.

So um it was the number one kind of issue that people said would make the greatest impact in their quality of life was can we have some find some measures to ease traffic in crowds?

And the number three um in idea was um, you know, we would are really interested in finding ways to keep cars out of downtown so that we can um not have everybody like circling and and congesting the road the um the downtown core during high season.

And so I think this is a testament to the responsiveness of city government to say, like you've just updated your um transportation master plan and tool design group who's part of our team wrote that plan.

They also wrote the state streets for all, and they were involved in the Ride Island plan as well.

So we have their institutional knowledge and ideas as part of our team, and and a lot of the work that they've done and the really specific um policies and strategies that they've proposed in those plans will be folded into the comprehensive plan update.

Oops, excuse me.

Um so just you know, to touch on that at a high level, and and then we're gonna drill down on a couple of these topics.

Um, those plans talk about the need to improve vehicle parking management and information so that people you know know what's available and um can spend less time circulating and can congesting the streets, um, the need to reconsider how parking is priced in the downtown and to establish you know different zones and um to discourage people from you know trying to find that prize spot in the downtown.

Uh we know that there's the the new access hub, the intercept lot that's up by the the Pell Bridge where it um enters in the north end, and I think that that's a an important first step, but we have like a suite of strategies that are needed to make that really function as it's intended.

Um so we'll go a little bit deeper there.

And we think that there's good examples from other cities, Salem and Massachusetts or Annapolis, where they really do say like on certain weekend nights where it's you know full of people in the summer months or full of tourists during Halloween for in the case of Salem, we're not going to have people driving through certain areas.

And it allows people to really enjoy the atmosphere and to move freely within those streets.

And then there's ideas in those prior plans about thinking about your situation surrounded by water and finding ways to improve access and frequency of water-based transportation as well.

So some of those ideas we're not going to say a ton about tonight, but we do want to say a little bit more about the importance of that intercept lot and the you know the groundwork that has been laid, and we know that there's like it's a it's in process, and um, but to us it's about more than just that parking lot.

So there needs to be like marketing and communication, so people know that it's there and they know how to use it and they know how to get from there to downtown.

There needs to be convenient transit options, and so as an example, the Route 67 that does it that takes people to the mansions doesn't stop at that lot, and so people would have to do a two-seat ride to go into the gateway center and then connect.

And so visitors may be discouraged by that two-seat ride.

Um there's uh a need for like micro mobility, or how are people going to get if once they leave their car there?

Most visitors don't necessarily bring their bicycle, and so how can they make that last um piece of the journey into the downtown?

Um we know that there's um a need for like coordination and event management and um enforcement to make sure that shuttles that are promised are running and that people can kind of move to and through these spaces.

And so I think that the plan will go will say a lot more about how can we really make sure that that access hub is something that people recognize and see the value in and understand that it is their experience in Newport starts as soon as they park their car and leave it, and they have this really wonderful and range of options to get them where they where they're trying to go.

There's also been discussion about the potential to add some parking vertically within the downtown core, and I think that we know there's been talk about the potential to add a deck at Gateway Center, and I think that there's a real sense that you know, because land is so limited and because downtown and the harbor front land is so valuable, you know, there's a lot of space that's being used by surface lots, and so can we figure out a way to elegantly like hide vertical parking, wrap it with a building that is in keeping with Newport's aesthetic and be able to add a little bit of capacity and have people pay for that privilege of parking right in prime location in the downtown.

And then to think through like as new development unfolds in the north end and the casino site to really make sure that parking is not a dominant land use, but it is part of the equation and again thoughtfully integrated into new development that may take shape there.

And then this last uh strategy about congestion management really just honors the fact that you have these beautiful walkable streets.

Um people fill them in the summer months, particularly on weekends, and it can be real gridlock.

And so I think there's a sense that can we uh make some of these spaces pedestrian only, not all the time, but part of the time.

Um and particularly during big events or peak weekends, and um to have people be able to move freely through the space and really enjoy the downtown.

And I think that that applies to residents as well as visitors, um, and certainly that has to be paired with really clear communication about like when streets are open and where else you might park and how to move move to and through.

And so those are just some examples from Annapolis where they've converted parking lots to to parks and where they've um embraced a pedestrian-only zone that's temporary so that people can really enjoy the streets and then the public realm in the summer months.

So I'm gonna go through the next section, pass it to Kevin, then we'll we're happy to go back to any of these for more discussion.

The second topic that we brought a subset of um strategies about has to do with infrastructure, um, in particular funding infrastructure and thinking through like the capacity demands of all of these uh people, um visitors as well as um year-round residents and and part-time residents.

So we know that there's been some really significant upgrades and investment over the past uh couple decades, and uh to meet the capacity needs both of the year-round and and summertime populations.

So there's been investments in the drinking water uh system, there's been investments in the wastewater um system, and we know that there is this really um significant uh infrastructure bond that the city passed not too long ago.

However, as we understand it, um the stormwater remains a really significant issue for Newport, and um combined sewer overflows were a leading issue for water quality um in the harbor, and um uh we know that in 2024, eight out of nine bacteria exceedance events were all associated with with rainfall.

And so we think that this is something that um particularly as weather becomes more uh extreme.

Um it's something that like we we need to be grappling with and figuring out ways to um to do more and and invest more.

We also understand that um beach closures that are related to heavy rainfall can result in revenue losses, and so with if there's an inch of rain um within 24 hours, there has to be a beach closure of up to 12 hours.

And so I think last year um in August alone there were closures that were resulted in you know 75,000 in lost parking uh revenue.

And so um this is something that you know it it affects people's uh property, it affects their their daily life, it affects their ability to enjoy some of the city's assets, and it also affects the city's bottom line.

And so with this increase in climate change um yeah and these like increasing frequency and flooding events, um it's all the more important to say like we have to really focus on infrastructure that can make our city more resilient.

And I think this is something that is again like just like the congestion issue has been in our ears from um city staff and from residents from the beginning of our project.

And so um we're asking the question about um you know, and raising uh kind of the imperative that there's a need for more sustainable source of funding that can be used toward these really important upgrades because the infrastructure bond uh while substantial, like isn't gonna cover all of what the need is.

So there's a strategy about exploring funding mechanisms that can create that consistent source of revenue for infrastructure upgrades and facility upgrades.

And I think that you know you have a an old city, it has old infrastructure.

Um, and so there's a significant amount of deferred maintenance and um increased rain, increased flooding, increased snowfall really just um adds to the to the um kind of risk that is presented by um this aging infrastructure.

And so um there are certain mechanisms that uh the city doesn't have control over fully that would need uh enabling legislation from the state, but we think that it is um worthwhile to talk about that in the context of these plans and to say, look, like we have this need and we have to figure out a way to um pay for these types of investments.

And so, as an example, a development impact fee may not be feasible at the moment, but is an idea that is worth um continuing to talk about.

Um in particular related to to stormwater, we understand that uh the utilities department has been working on a study to understand um how could we potentially separate the stormwater from the current sewer rate and be able to devise a different billing structure that would charge users based or properties based on their hard surface area.

And this is something that has worked really well in other places and has been able to uh raise funds for addressing stormwater management and building that into public improvements projects and better aligning the the cost of stormwater um uh service to the the kind of size and shape of a particular property, and so it better aligns with the true cost of service that the utilities department is providing for some of these really large um excuse me, hard or impervious surfaces.

So I'm gonna pass it to Kevin to talk through take us through the third section and then we'll we'll happily go back for questions.

Thanks.

Um you um this the city needs to work towards a more diversified economy, particularly more with more than just the Navy and with tourism.

Um I've been through prior BRAC processes at the state level here.

I know every few years it comes into like what's what's gonna happen to us, um, and look at a more resilient job base and and also increasing the financial capacity of the community.

As Mindy just said, the city needs a lot of money, a lot of capital over the next several years, over the next decade to be essentially to reinvest itself to protect itself.

And you all know the state as well as I do, you know, who knows, right?

So one of the issues are, and this comes back to the housing question that you had, which is the point.

There's just not a lot, there's not a lot of land, and that means there's not a lot of what I call places and spaces for jobs, um, particularly for a range of types of jobs where there might be some form of manufacturing.

We like to talk about um jobs along two uh along two dimensions.

One are vertical kinds of jobs, which are jobs that can go in offices, and then there are horizontal kinds of jobs, manufacturing distribution, the marina, the marine industry, which has to be done horizontally by just the nature of the processes, and your ability to do horizontal is is is pretty limited here.

Um you don't have a full range of development tools.

This is a problem, not just a newport problem, this is a problem in most of the state of Rhode Island, uh, frankly, but you in order to influence to get the kind of development you want and the timing that you want, you have to be a you have to be more of a participant in it.

And you have done this before.

You did this with um the innovation hub at the school, but you you're going to need to probably do this for things like the north end.

Um the linkages between the residents and the emerging opportunities in the blue economy, which we're gonna talk about at business and small businesses, um, both the managing the tourism, and as Mindy meant uh mentioned, managing tourism's negative and positive aspects, like emphasizing event management, particularly when you have multiple big events going on at the same time, and trying and coming up with an active management plan for that, uh trying to spread out the seasonal activity so it's not so intense, um, and mostly just to help out your other small businesses, and you're gonna have to figure out the housing thing, everybody knows you're gonna have to figure out and business and resiliency issue, and this gets back to the stormwater and some of these other questions.

1.3 billion dollars of your property value is at risk in a major storm event.

So, what are our strategies?

The first one is create and preserve places and spaces.

Um, you need the tools, diversify the tourism, so it's less summer and event driven, and also because it'll help generate um additional revenue for you all.

And the point one of the points here is to think about this idea of the blue economy, which um you know is heart and soul of a lot of what people want to do here, and it makes a lot of sense, but you also all of these other elements help support the blue economy.

You need you need places for people, you need places for people to live, you need a community that people want to live in, which you have, but you want to not just you want to make sure that the other stuff doesn't destroy the good stuff.

Um, and but you've got to be able to have the tools to do it because the fact of the matter is you are not the only people trying to do this, and there are a lot of other people who are spending a lot more money than including in this state is spending on the blue economy initiatives, particularly around the tech side of it.

So, our first strategy is we think you need to think about the blue economy as a transect, and this is a kind of a planning idea, which is the linkage between the upland, the coast, and what's happening in the marine environment.

And why do I say that?

Because some things you're gonna want to make, some things need access to the water, and other things actually take place in the water.

So you have to think about that, those how those things are related.

The first thing is that we're we're gonna suggest um preserve space that for water dependent uses and discourage non-water dependent uses on the waterfronts.

Um think about acquiring some key properties.

The only way to really control their future is to actually have control of them.

And I think you can need to begin thinking about working with the other Quidneck Island communities on employment space preservation and development.

And I will tell you why.

Um there are only a couple of office parks on the island.

Uh, one of the largest employers actually moved to Bristol for space, a new office space.

It's now being converted to housing.

If you had the blue economy, where would you put it?

So the tools.

I think you need to think about a development entity that can very that can more easily partner with the private sector, acquire and assemble property, catalyze development, provide access to capital, put together what's known as a capital stack, which is the different forms of money that need to be put in to make a deal.

And I think it's going to be, I think it's probably how you're gonna have to do the North End, honestly.

Um particularly the North End planet exists right now, and I think you need to think about a city state multi-tax incentive model because you don't control the sales tax and you don't control income tax, but those money are probably gonna be needed to organize a capital stack and a subsidy to get the north end built, particularly if you want it to be employment centered.

Um that means you have to go to the state for that.

Um this is the tourism, you can see the spike and the drop.

One is hotels, one is bridge traffic, one is uh food and beverage tax, and even though almost half of it is local, you can still see this massive spike.

Um our thing is how do you move?

How do you take all the pressure off for particularly for the tourism-based businesses in the town?

So they have to make all their money in basically seven weeks, eight weeks, nine weeks.

Um, and what are the options?

What kind of infrastructure would be needed?

Um, and how what are options that are less car intensive?

The other thing is that would help generate additional revenues for the city through the accommodations tax and the rev and the and food, food and beverage and potentially parking fees that the city needs to fund its capital improvement projects.

Um the workforce, uh, iris is a really interesting, fascinating example.

If you look at what's actually taking place on the particular on the blue economy side, it's very electronics heavy.

So the question is are there options on the electronic side with Iris, but you know, with uh the community college to begin building out that workforce.

But again, just going back, if you don't have a place for them to live, and you don't have a place to put them, you put a lot of energy and everybody else is gonna get the benefit for it.

And then the what I like to call the newport experience, and it's it's uh it's two parts.

One is the livability for you all, and making sure that that is managed and it's continues to keep the community desirable, and it helps improve tourism, and those relate back to the suggestions that Mindy had around congestion and infrastructure.

I would go one step further, which is I think you need a cross-agency group that inside the city government that act that has a dashboard and begins looking at and monitoring what's happening with tourism.

And there are two ways of there's two ways to do it.

There's actually a really interesting article most recently in the Harvard Business Review about this, which is called Experience Intelligence, which is instead of taking a dashboard of metrics of things that have already happened, figure out what are indicators of things that are going to be happening and figure out what those things are.

And I think you need to begin thinking about that and working with Discovery Newport on that as well, because they have pain points as it relates to the tourism experience, and a lot of them are probably beginning to overlap in a very real way.

So I think that's it.

Yep.

Mindy.

So those those are the slides that were in your packet.

Um, we're happy to go back and um answer questions and talk about any of those in greater length.

Um, if there's other topics that you want us to talk about, um, we're happy to do that.

And the the only other slide that we brought was just this announcement about the August 27th community open house that will either be in this room or um if weather permits, um, out front uh in the the plaza in front of City Hall.

And so that will be a chance for um a more complete set of ideas for all 11 topics that the plan must address um to be um explored and discussed, and um you know feedback is welcome at that event as well for for all of the public, but um happy to take the conversation wherever um I think we're gonna start with the questions with the planning board and uh city council, and then um I'll leave it to the mayor and the chair to however you want to run the rest of the meeting, but thanks, Mindy.

I think this is yeah, I think you've done a really good job um teasing out some of the more the higher priority issues in the community and demonstrating how the comp how you scope from a wide vision down much more narrowly to strategies and goals so you begin to get the sense of what the plan actually will have to do.

How do we concretely execute to achieve that vision?

How do we set goals for these things that are often longer term investments?

How do we create the ecosystem that we need to economically diversify?

So I think it would be any questions about any clarification, any questions about any of the there's such a rich set of data here.

Any data that if we don't have it yet, maybe that needs to be collected, that might be a good focus to start.

The only question I have when somebody says that if you could have work here, but you can't live here.

Like I said, we're 10 square miles.

We're right next to Middletown, right next to Portsmouth.

I agree with you, we should be working with the other communities in terms of development because the acreage, the properties, are a lot bigger in our sister communities than they are in Newport.

That doesn't stop somebody from actually working in Newport.

Even in the entertainment industry or the restaurant industry, a lot of people come from Middletown.

So I I don't really quite buy that.

But the transportation is the key.

Other communities have done that, particularly during their tourist season, and make them available so that people can park the car, and you either get out and walk or you hop on a trolley or whatever they provide, but not these big buses.

I watched them go around Newport with three people on them, 60 foot buses.

It's ridiculous.

I mean, I don't even I this has been years.

I went 10 years ago to talk to them about it.

And I've been up there since it's ridiculous.

What are they thinking?

Yeah, I'm uh so we did have Ripta came and participated in our May focused groups, and um I think that's certainly um I know that we've discussed this, and I I think that um I I am familiar with other cities that have been successful in deploying smaller vehicles.

I think that you know it's a it's a it's a complex uh transit system, and there's like a lot of regulations around how they're able to um customize their roots and change their roots, you know, only a certain number of times per year.

Um, but I think that uh I understand and have seen what you're describing as well in my time here, and so I think those are ideas that we can continue to to push on.

Um I uh certainly um agree with what you're saying that um we're not you know, we need to be thinking about um how people who live island wide and work in Newport are you know able to get where they need to go.

It's not just about like how the tourists get to the intercept lot and then you know move through I have had more complaints about rip the buses, not even from people in Newport, from people elsewhere that have to come here to work that catch it on the West Main Road, and sometimes it shows up and not always on time.

In fact, a lot of times not on time.

They miss doctor appointments, they miss uh their work schedule.

I mean, you know, this really there ought to be some sort of um, I don't know, we ought to have some sort of meeting with Ripta because it's not working, and I don't even care if it wasn't Ripta.

I'd go for a private service.

Yeah, I think they are they uh it sounded to me like they were you know expanding their flex on demand, you know, more uh like a Uber type, you know, call for the service that you need.

Um but I uh anyway, our our transportation planners on the team tool um are they have good connections at Ripta, and we we certainly have had their participation and I ex I'm not sure if they're coming this week, but um, we'll see if they have uh come back for more and we can we can certainly um work with them to make sure that we're pushing in the right ways um in the consultation section.

Thank you.

Um a couple of things um about the the dark houses and uh I think that I'm not sure about the impact in this in this presentation has been has shown any impact of how the dark houses actually uh impact our utilities because people shut their water off, but the water system still needs to run.

Yes.

So um when um you know, we want to sell water.

This is we want to in order to keep the system going and in order to um you know keep the infrastructure up that and with all of these water saving uh appliances, which are great, you know, it's actually inhibited the city from being able to raise money because we want to sell water.

So how much does that really go into the so-called burden on the on the um the infrastructure if a hotel is actually going to buy the water, or if uh you know, so I I'm not sure I like there was a characterization of um I'm just trying to find it here, I'm sorry.

Uh there was a characterization of something called stress of systems, yeah.

But what what is the proof of that?

I mean, I could say impact of systems, but I I don't know about the stress of systems because we have a lot of people who just shut their water off, and and then uh you know, we're not making any money.

The other thing is the development.

Um I feel like in a way, with this presentation, I'm going back almost 10 years because we have been trying to diversify this economy.

Yeah, okay, and it's sort of a damned if you do don't damned if you don't think because they'll say, okay, we tried to get a hydroponic plant here, we tried to get quantum computers here.

Um and they say, well, okay, there's no housing, we don't have the the people who are educated enough to do it, and then some people are upset because the jobs are too high paying, and some people are upset because the jobs are too low paying.

I mean, it's a mixed bag.

So we have been doing this, and we had the five-acre lot that the skate um skate park is on now, and we were trying to preserve that for the blue economy, for but we couldn't get anybody to come to do that because we don't have the housing.

So there you are, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

And it's happening, the same thing is happening.

They're complaining about this in Middletown because they're saying, well, okay, we can't diversify ourselves because we don't have housing, then they put the housing where perhaps the businesses could go.

So, you know, there's just so much space.

Yeah.

So that's that's the rub.

And so it's frustrating, like looking at a presentation where I'm not sure how much is being looked at what has already tried to be done.

Yeah, I think when Kevin talked about the the tools, like that um in the economic diversification about the redevelopment authority or you know, an NCT that is created to say, like it it is your purpose to drive this forward and to be able to marshal the resources, and um, I think that that's as I understand it, like that's the new idea here, right?

To say, like we've had this great plan, there's a lot of pressure and ideas that are kind of in the mix for that north end urban plan, and it includes housing and it includes space for work.

But we know that there's challenges with that site, there's challenges with the lack of infrastructure, there's challenges with flooding, there's challenges with assembling the the resources, and so I think that um, and you know, Kevin can say more about his involvement with those prior uh economic diversification plans.

So it's like we understand the work that and that the efforts that have come before us.

Um, but I I think that that's the the sense here is that like it's not gonna move forward without that um an entity that is really tasked with like this is um to to change the dynamic in terms of like you know how can we make this feasible?

Do you have anything?

You know, just just as far as that uh five-acre plot that's in the north end where the skate park is, you know, we as I said we tried to preserve it, but finally, you know, we needed we were being begged for a skate park.

I mean the kids need something to do that we've been you know, being baked and then so we basically had to give up some of that land, and because there was no other place to put one.

Now we're talking about putting a splash pad there, and and so it's you know, it's like and that and and that was really for the residents and their children, you know.

So we're trying to create a balance.

We're trying to create a balance, but it's difficult, and I think that sometimes the residents don't really understand not understand, but don't see the efforts that we've tried to make in these um in these efforts.

Yeah, there's a lot of there's trade-offs with each of those decisions, right?

And I think that um it, you know, there's often like a real sense of urgency for residents of like my kids have this need right now, you know, and there's all this land, and why isn't you know, why can't we use it?

But it was 20 years in the making, you know, and so when we finally got it done, and you know, it was great, but we did have to give up land that we wanted to put the blue economy on.

Yeah, so you know, it's just it's a damned if you do don't damned if you don't kind of thing, and and you know, should we go vertically?

Maybe, but then we're gonna have a lot of complaints about the buildings being too tall.

So, you know, it's like there's there's a lot, there's a lot there.

Yeah.

The other frustrating part is you know we also have to deal with with the state on a lot of things.

Um approval for taxes, fees, what have you.

And you know, we're looking to diversify our economy.

Well, the state of Rhode Island is one of the worst states to do business in the in the country.

So it's like it's very difficult to draw a business here.

And we were always talking about blue economy businesses, but we don't have much, there's not a lot of space.

Um, let me go as opposed to a place like like Middletown or Bristol, who's who's growing Kwanset, Portsmouth.

Um, and then obviously we have the housing.

So it's really another kind of like a vicious circle.

And the other part of that is just the the insular part of it in Newport is if we do try to create housing, then there's a group that fights us to put housing in a certain space or certain certain area, or it's not the right kind of housing, it's either too expensive or it's too uh too low income.

Um it's also it's almost like you can't win.

Um I agree we we absolutely need to diversify the economy and try to find other revenue centers, but realistically, we're not close to bringing those in.

You know, so I I think the the better off we're trying to the we're better off trying to balance the current situation that we're in, the tourism, the hospitality, um whether it's uh government um to try to get try to get that economy going to try to help us out uh in general, as opposed to just trying or trying to rather than trying to stop one revenue center to try to create it up.

We we do have property in the north end, and we were told there's no infrastructure under the property, right?

There's no water and sewer, there's no electrical, it's gonna be at least 200 million just under.

So, you know, that that scares people.

Um you're right.

We have to work with the state, we have to work with our sister communities.

Um, but that doesn't seem to work too well.

Also, I guess you know, Middletown Portsmouth and Newport are so connected, and perhaps Jamestown.

I mean, we're all Newport County, and why wouldn't we have a Newport County um comp plan?

I mean, wouldn't that be something that you know we're we're we're all in our little silos here, and regionalization is sort of a dirty word for now, but um, you know, I I think that that's something that could really help us to understand each other and to help each other with each other's issues, and so um, so that's something that you know it just kind of popped in my head, but it was like I was like, oh, that would be a good thing to do.

The other thing I'm wondering is, you know, how much have you studied the shoulder season?

Because I think the shoulder season has changed a lot over the last several years.

And um, I mean, I I go downtown Christmas time, and it's it's busy.

Um, and so how it's not the eight-week tourism uh anymore.

It's and you know, the other thing, people make a lot of money at working in these restaurants and you know, hotels, and it just I mean, the the bars and the restaurants, I mean, it's difficult because they don't have benefits many times, or you know, but the thing and it's nice a cash business, but people do make money in tourism.

So I don't want people to think that oh, you know, everybody's just making two dollars an hour, they're not.

Yeah, we so I think we heard that also from um Discover Newport was sort of like you know, maybe some of the jobs are low paying, but it's not all of them, and some of them, some people really can you know do quite well in this industry.

Um, and I think the the small businesses that we spoke to also you know would agree with what you said about the shoulder season and sort of saying, like I did pretty well into October, November, and um even December.

And so um, and I that may be in part because of the you know, that 50% of your spending is coming from the region, right?

People who are still, you know, maybe not coming and spending the night, but they're you know, there's enough to draw them here to um but I think that you have to look at the resiliency of the city when it comes to tourism because I mean, look at COVID.

You know, we did everything we could to try to make the businesses successful, outdoor seating, we bent every rule, you know, known to man.

And there were not many businesses that went under during COVID.

And a lot of that was because people felt safe coming here, and now of course they loved it so much they stayed and now they're driving up the housing prices, right?

But you know, but it we we have shown our resilience in that way, you know.

So um I um I think that when we say tourism, and it's kind of like, oh, there's the there's a bad word, you know, it we have to look at things in a different way.

Yeah, and I mean I think that that is part of what we're trying to do here is to like I think the plan can be an educational tool to say, like, let's actually unpack some of you know what we're learning.

And I think that that's really what Kevin's message was was to say like this is a really important part of what makes the city what it is.

And it always has.

Yes, exactly.

And um, and I think it I think what we've heard, what we're hearing though is like there are certain issues, housing is one of them, um, or hasn't cost congestion is one of them that are like really what has reached a new tipping point, and people are saying, like, I don't know my neighbors anymore, and that's changing what I love about this place, or I can't get to my job unless I'm walking because you know, I can't move through the streets, and so I think that's why we're trying to say, like it's an important part of you know, the economy, and it if that will remain we as we foresee it, um, it would be great to round out to add some to diversify and to think about how do we unlock the potential of the north end.

Um there's been some really good progress that the city has made on how do we manage the short-term rentals and how do we, you know, kind of get our hands back on the reins of like what's going on with our housing market.

Um anyway, I guess I'm hoping that like we're showing both sides of like what tourism is generates here, and then and also what is everything that has been mentioned on all of the things that we could do have already been talked about.

We've already gone through it, but it costs money, and so I mean, if we could snap our fingers and say, yeah, we it would be done by now because none of them are new ideas.

We've we've we've we've gone through this stuff, and you know, hoping that we can get this little pot of money or that little pot of money, it's just it's just it's extremely difficult.

Yes, and keeping taxes low and trying, you know, it's like thank you.

Um, I guess some of the concerns that that I have is that I I don't want this document coming off as a tourism marketing plan.

Yeah.

Um, you know, what what is our plan B?

If if we are putting all our eggs in the tourism basket, and something happens, what is our plan B going forward?

You know, this is supposed to be uh a guiding document for for what the next 10 years.

And I think if if we are hyper focused on tourism, as tourism is the end all be all to us surviving here in in Newport, then that's just gonna put us in a bad way in the event that that we're hit with another um pandemic or or or some god forbid, something worse.

You know, how how are we gonna bounce back from that?

I I think that the city did have some struggles during COVID that fortunately it it wasn't a lengthy time frame, and and the city was able, the tourism industry was able to bounce back from that, but not at the cost of of many businesses that that had been there for decades that said, you know what, we have to close our doors, and then they had to sell their their establishment.

And and the and the other the other thing that I want to be concerned about is I I don't want to want to look at the north end of the city as here's our opportunity for parking lots to bring people into the city instead of looking at the north end as how can we pull the north end more into being part of our city.

So you know I can I can appreciate obviously all the hard work that has gone into this, but those are just the things that that I just want to be careful of that we're not setting ourselves up for failure five, 10 years down the road.

Absolutely.

So I think you know, maybe in choosing these three topics, like we were trying to be like responsive to what we know has been part of the public discourse lately, but I think um we completely agree that like we should happen to show like yes, we need to be mindful of parking and how it's managed in the north end, but like that's just like a supporting land use, like it's really about what's the potential to um like have housing and a connected neighborhood and jobs, and um, so that is and parking in service of those uses, right?

So I I think um and uh you know maybe tonight's discussion, it sort of is like that's why I wanted to say like the the vision is really meant to say like we're taking this as it's like the community's plan, right?

It's the residence plan for the city, and um it has and I think you know, then we're like, let's talk about tourism and what its role is here, and so I think um again that like this is just like um a big topic right now that is um and it touches on a lot of the different elements that the plan will address, but there is like a you know a much more um comprehensive list of uh strategies that um I think will cover um both the economic diversification as well as you know housing and neighborhoods and education and like uh city services and all of the um parks and um preservation and all of the other topics that we need to make sure we're justice.

So there that is um part of what we'll be or much of what we'll be sharing out in our focus groups this week and um and then we'll be bringing it all together for people at that August event.

Um I just say make one more comment, please.

Um you know, you say that this is the residence plan, and it is, but if the residents are not informed about tourism and how tourism works in the city, then this is just a small part of the comp plan, but I think it's an important part because it's how imp it impacts people's lives.

So I'm not saying that this is the end all and be all of the comp plan or should be.

It's not right, but it's a just it's an important discussion that we have to have in order for the residents plan to actually for them to be educated.

So that's why I think this is important, and I think we need to continue to have these conversations about what our economic drivers are or what they could be.

Um so you know, we had COVID, it was a long time.

It felt like forever.

Yeah, and um, and I mean you look back on it now, you say, you know, it wasn't, but it was it was very scary, and um, and that was our almost our Armageddon, you know.

This is only three buckets of the compliment that we're talking about tonight.

It happened to be tourism um congestion and the economic drivers, but how many because you said it's a residence plan, how many residents have actually taken part in in this?

I know you mentioned here it was 158, you know, since 158 people since the last time.

Yeah, but um I think Frederick had said I should bring a slide that says here's all the people that we've touched.

So um uh let's see, the the survey had I think like nearly a thousand responses.

Um we've done a collection of um interviews.

There were the focus groups, we'll have this next round of focus groups, and then um the first public open house that was back in December was at Rogers High School.

It was like a very cold rainy night, and so we had maybe 50 people come out.

Um I'm hoping that we'll have a more robust turnout in August when we'll be you know, hopefully on the front lawn.

Um, but I would say, you know, um there's been uh pretty engaged um set of residents, but it you know, it's a it's a cross section, and so we do the best we can to say like have we heard from um uh all corners of the community and planning and development staff have been out at various events and going to meetings and so forth, and so um uh, but I can do some I can do some work to say, like, can we put a number or a rough number on that if that would be helpful?

Yeah, I mean, because it's not exactly number the because it's so important.

And we're we're trying to create a comp plan and all these different things based on the residents feedback.

Uh I know we did the housing what two years ago we did that one in the 1%, if that of the of the people who own houses in Newport that's a part in so we're trying to base so many things off just such a tiny percentage of people, which thank goodness that we do have some people getting engaged.

Majority of the people aren't aren't engaging for whatever reason.

I don't know what the reason is.

But um and you know, so if you get a uh a group of people uh or residents that are specifically aimed at where it's one or two sections sections of a comp plan, and that's what we're focused on.

It's it could very well skew uh of how we how we how we gauge our future.

Yeah, it can be concerning, but but that's all you have to go by.

Yeah, but that's that's what you go by.

Well, I think it's I guess two two things I'll say to that.

Like the state has really uh detailed requirements, and so even if there's something that like hasn't had a ton of uh discussion or like hasn't risen to the top as like one of the main themes, like we still have to address it, and we still have to like talk to city staff and understand what are the issues and understand, you know, um what what do we need to be working on?

So I think that the plan will be comprehensive because it has to be.

Uh I think that in any process that we work on, like we are always meeting like a section of the community who chooses to participate.

Um, but I think that the um the opportunity to apply for the advisory committee, like gave us a pool of people who are saying, like, are we really interested?

And even if they weren't ultimately selected to serve, they were they extended an opportunity to attend one of the focus groups.

And so I think that the people that you know, staff here has done a good job of helping us to connect with what are the you know, really involved residents, what are the representatives of different neighborhoods, who are the organizations that we need to understand their work and make sure that they have a seat at the table.

So, you know, I think it's um it's uh required that we step back and say, like, do we miss somebody?

Is there like some group that's really like we we need to do more work to connect with?

And so that's part of why we had the focused meeting in the north end um at our last trip here, and we'll go back this week is to say like they were underrepresented in the survey, and so let's let's make sure that we have those conversations um because it's a large share of residents who live up there, and so um so I I hear your concern.

I like I think it's fairly common that you know we're only reaching a percentage of the population.

Um, and I think that what we do find in our work is that when we have conversations and we have these meetings, like eventually we get to a place where we're like, okay, I'm hearing like this thing coming up again and again, and so I feel like I have a pulse of the community.

And I think the challenge then is like people don't all feel the same way, right?

So there's always gonna be a certain set of issues where like we have people.

They don't tell you until after that happens, that does happen.

Um, and so you know, I think that these meetings this week and the ones that we had in May are important and this conversation because they give us like a window into like what are those parts of the public discourse that we need to, you know, be ready to I think indeed listening to the conversation so far and the concerns and the questions that have been raised, it really I think we're gonna need some help understanding strategies that others have used successfully to economically diversify things like um using an ecosystem approach, mapping the ecosystem required to build or diversify that's been a successful strategy in a lot of places.

Alternative forms of governing, not changing our governing institutions, but for example, metropolitan governance is a voluntary, you know, you have you create separate organizations, they don't supersede your local governing authorities, but they're coordinating entities.

So you how what are some alternative ways of coordinating across the county or across the state, bringing people together and coordinating in some different ways, some different ways of governing to achieve these problems to help that that everyone benefits from ultimately and and being able to go after capital as a group to be able, it's a more powerful way to do it.

So I think we need some help identifying what some of those strategies and approaches are that have been successfully used elsewhere in the country and elsewhere in the world, frankly.

And then I heard a lot about engagement as well and and help with you know building engagement and sustaining engagement.

That's something that you've already mentioned in some of these strategies.

All right, how do we go about doing that?

What are some goods, what are some effective strategies that have been used?

Okay.

Yeah, I think that you know, some case studies are or best practices can certainly be part of what we bring back in in August to say, like this has worked, and here's the ingredients to make this successful.

You know, I I would just like to say what I think I hear people asking for repeatedly is balance.

Balance in the city.

We have a lot of seniors, including myself in the city.

We need families, we want families, you want that diversification, and yet the way things are going right now.

The younger people, you talk about the if they can get a job here, that's fine.

But um, by and large, they can't buy a home, they can't even afford the rent.

I it we've changed a lot.

Um the other thing I'd like to suggest is our events in the summer.

If we know the numbers of people that may be in attendance for an event, I think we've got to start looking at those and scheduling properly.

We can't afford to have an extra hundred thousand people in the city of Newport.

Don't think it doesn't happen on one weekend.

We really need to schedule those events based on the crowd size, and we need to start asking them when they come up and ask for permission to have this, that, or the other thing on a certain date, and to have three or four of them on the same date has been disastrous.

Well, that's that's a city council's fault then for well, you say, but you know, I I just think that it would be helpful for us to be able to recognize that certain events draw larger crowds in different areas.

I I just you know, we really need to get more organized with this and not have all the residents bombard it.

You know, Kevin mentioned that about the event management and coordination, and yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Any other comments from the panel before I turn it over to the public.

All right.

I know you are about to I don't know.

You want to come up with you.

Hi, I'm Beth Cullen.

We've talked.

I was at one of your focus groups.

I'm on the school committee currently, and I'm running for city council.

Umic development is a lot more in Newport than tourism.

Unfortunately, I've been in three of these strategic planning sessions over 30 years.

That's how old I am.

And unfortunately, we haven't been very creative or imaginative or forceful or willful about talking about the in-demand jobs that are definitely here on our island and in our committee, all the way to Quonset.

Talk about blue economy, 80 8,000 jobs waiting to be filled.

We should be talking about transportation from here to there, right?

We should be talking about that.

We should also be talking about things like cybersecurity, health care, uh, newck.

I know you didn't include it in your in your economic profile, but it is a two billion dollar business.

And 75% of those people leave Newport to go home.

So that's their money, that's their brain trust, that's their civic um enthusiasm.

They go home to other places.

So, yes, we've been talking about this for years, Jean.

We have, but we haven't done anything.

So it's time to giddy up and stop just saying that tourism is our only industry, because it's not.

We have reached the carrying capacity.

We have.

And you talked about the water system being updated and the sewer system being updated.

It was updated because uh it was close to 100 years old, and it's still pretty old.

It wasn't updated to hold capacity for all the new hotels.

It was updated so we have services.

So we cannot correlate those two things.

Education, public education is the key.

Why isn't that being discussed?

Because that is where the jobs start.

That is where the diversification of our economy starts.

I haven't heard one word about education.

Other communities, Seattle, Virginia, Texas.

They all talk about it as part of their seed core into improving their economy.

So we need to we need to really focus on that.

Yeah, we I'm sorry if it wasn't in here tonight.

We do have a slide about that for I understand there's a slide, but it's a lot more than a slide.

It's a conversation, it's a priority, it's a goal.

Of course.

So will there be mention of education in the comp plan?

Section that's requirements.

Yeah, and how how is that being formed?

So we have there's um a workforce slide that it will be part of the mix tomorrow, um, if it wasn't in there tonight, that is um within the economic development section.

So I think it does draw that connection, and then education, we have it listed under um city services and facilities as well.

So um, I know that it's you know, the school district is different than city proper government, but it is um you know that that's where we we have it housed currently.

So I think it's not because the city doesn't have full control over that, it doesn't, I think we had talked about our last.

City doesn't have full control over well, the school district.

So that I think there was a conversation around can we have education as its own chapter?

And I think that there's not enough not as a not as its own chapter, but is uh as I mentioned, other cities included in their economic development chapter because it is seed corn of economic development.

Um if we want to have it in two places, we we do.

Okay.

Um how are you going to address the diversification of our economy and talking about things like the world-class cybersecurity program at CCRI, or the um the professors that work at Salvay and the Naval Academy Prep School and the Naval War College as part of our community, giving giving them the attention they deserve, and that a goal could be set to say we have X number and we need to double that?

I don't hear anything like that.

I don't I don't hear that.

Um I'm hoping that the end product will include stuff like that.

Thank you.

Yep, thank you.

No one else in the public wants to enagel.

Um I live in Bellevue Avenue.

I have so much to say, but I'm gonna just ask one question.

I want to understand because it's a chicken and egg thing in my brain, and I can't figure it out, Trish.

Zoning, zoning for hotels.

This is the planning board, you're not the zoning board, but I want to understand this.

Anybody in a business section of the zone in this town?

Do I have that right?

Anyone in a business zone can just walk up to a building and say, or an empty lot and say, hotel, buy right.

We are like all done.

Yeah, but okay, it has to look pretty and it has to blend in, and it can't be 70 stories and all of that.

But we can have hotel after hotel after hotel.

But I was told that we can't have a zoning change unless it's in the comp.

Unless that's the vision.

So the comp plan will set future land use, uh future land use map, and it sets um goals and strategies and policy recommendations, and then the but the comp plan itself can't change zoning.

So the comp plan provides the direction, and then the zoning changes are a separate process that would come on the heels of the comp plan to align with the um strategies and the ideas that are held within the comprehensive plan.

So does the comprehensive plan talk about hotels, the endless development of hotels?

Yes, I think that the the land use conversation would be a place for for that conversation about you know how we have very limited land and um, you know, how does that land, how do we envision using that land going forward?

But is that conversation been had?

It's ongoing.

So I think um with who?

So I think um with who well with our consultant team with city staff with our advisory committee with the focus groups that are coming up this week.

So um we didn't bring the land use conversation here tonight, but um it's it's like the most I like to say it's like the most important um page of the comprehensive plan is the future land use map that then guides development decisions and and zoning changes uh for the city.

So it's an ongoing conversation.

What is the conversation been so far about hotels?

Uh well, I think um I think we can have a conversation about you know not putting additional hotels in certain parts of your city.

I think that we we likely wouldn't say like don't we wouldn't likely wouldn't recommend no more hotels, period full stop.

Um because um I think we have a sense that people will come and spend those dollars in one of your neighboring municipalities, and um that may not you know be a benefit for for Newport.

Discover Newport does not have any proof in any of their surveys or any of the numbers that I've looked at or any of their data that has shown that their hotels at any time have all been full.

At any time height of season, they've never all been full.

So why do we need more hotels?

The Wellington is turning into a hotel, waits Wharf, that's gonna be flipped to somebody because he's not gonna build it, and uh now treadway is expanded, and Bellevue Gardens is being built, which is upsetting so many people.

Is there a reason we need more hotels?

Well, I think it's obvious if I mean a developer's not gonna come in and build a hotel if it's not gonna be profitable.

Charlie.

No, that's Charlie.

Come on, let's be real.

That's that's with any development in the city, not just hotels, right?

You know, more terms on anything are bad for business, period.

You don't want any more hotels.

Well, we're we're kind of like oversaturated in this community with tourism, it's gone too far.

In your opinion, yes, but not just my opinion.

Well, if you look at your own at your own Discover Newport survey, 13% of the respondents believe that the city council and the city government are actually managing tourism in a healthy manner that responds to the community.

13 percent.

Oh, how many people it's your survey.

What do you what do you it's not my survey?

You're on board.

Okay, let me let me remember this is a planning board meeting actually, and a workshop on the comp plan and planning.

Those are all important points, and we appreciate those.

And that's where the way the comp plan will address that issue will not be directly but indirectly by virtue of the goals that are in the comp plan.

Economic diversification is and will be a goal in the comp plan.

And so the strategy, it will be very helpful to have suggestions about strategies that can help us to be more effective in economic diversification.

So that has been economic diversification was in the comp plan.

I assume it will continue to be in the comp plan, and it's something that's clearly been expressed as something important, not only here tonight, but in the comments that, as I understand it, residents have been making as well.

So I I think it's not gonna get lost, and uh, but the comp plan doesn't make law, it's not a set of laws, it's not a set of zoning regulations.

It's a guide.

It's a guy, it's a it's a guide, and it's required by state law.

We we we know that in order to change Steph Smith's probably pick up on this, in order to change the zoning code, it has to be represented in the comp plan.

So that's the catch 22.

We're trying to make sure that they align.

So do we have some legal counsel here?

That's consistency with the comp plan.

So it has to be absolutely correct way you described okay.

So as long as and the comp plan is a big framework that you could drive a bus through it, right?

So almost anything is consistent in some by some set of arguments.

So that's the way it's represented, it's not a specific set of laws or rule rules or principles.

Okay, makes sense.

So we don't have to say we don't have to say change the zoning law in the comp plan in order to change a zoning law.

has to absolutely correct way you described okay so as long as and the comp plan is a big framework that you could drive a bus through it right so almost anything is consistent in some by some set of arguments so that's the way it's represented it's not a specific set of laws or rules or principles okay makes sense so we don't have to say we don't have to say change the zoning law in the camp plan in order to change a zoning law that's uh uh a decision that's made by the populace and sometimes forced at the local level by the state when the when the council does a zoning amendment the findings the most made is that amendment is consistent with the count change without the need of count we can say that it has to be found thanks for clarifying that for us somewhere absolutely hello i'm Lola Herrera excuse my pronunciation because I'm Espaniar first and then American so um Charlie was saying um before that until what point the participation in this uh comp plan 10 percent of the population is meaningful or not i i i i want to understand what you are saying uh i i think it's meaningful but i think in we need for more because i uh now we that we are in campaign in electoral campaign this need to be one of the things that all the politicians of this city that want to be representatives of this city need to talk because people need to know where we go with the city and what need to be the priority of the city if the citizens or the two or if we can have a diversification economy and that can be possible in Newport maybe in Newport as uh uh consular my napolitano is not possible because of the we are really really small but there are possibilities uh but also need to be possibilities that everybody is included not because we have to go to every person to ask the opinion but there is a problem for example in the city that the city is the tourists they are not going to the north end and we cannot think about the north end as only a parking lot we have to think about the north end as part of the city where there are streets houses commerce and business office things like that open space not because also our consular say okay yeah because we need an escape park we need wherever no it's not that we have to build something that is more solid in that area that is part of our city and that is not so divided by that road state road and also you mentioned as well about the commission about something that was happening years ago that doesn't exist because any municipality in this island want to put the resources to make it work and at the end disappear which was a Quinnet Island Commission which was a body that need to do something for the three municipalities I was a part of that body and nothing happened it was kind of always the same kind of people the same kind of people always and then not worse worse and nothing happened I mean I only be up was in a part of that period but it's important that in an island so small like this island there are three municipalities that they can have more agreements that they have now you know there is a part of the island that there is no construction why there is no construction because the naval base is part is is the owner of that and the naval base also is a super fund superfund is a place that is contaminated with many many really bad stuff where is the responsibility of the government to clean that stuff and make that area also valid for a blue economy or for more infrastructure or for housing that is affordable not with the contain of affordability because it's for low income where where I mean there were also state representatives some time ago that they were talking about that and also in a Queen Island Commission and nothing advanced nothing we are three municipalities each one can do something that is okay maybe tourist is for Newport maybe some kind of hydroponics or something is for Smith because they have more maybe middle town can have some blue economy and the three of them collaborate to do this island livable for everybody but I don't see how that is not happening and that is what it needs to happen and also in we are in electoral campaign we have to talk about those things because what is going to be newpour in 20 years and when I told you about Charlie about Bar Harbor Bar Harbor is not really Newport but Bar Harbor you go and

Maybe Middletown can have some blue economy and the three of them collaborate to do this island livable for everybody.

But I don't see how that is not happening, and that is what it needs to happen, and also in we are in electoral campaign.

We have to talk about those things.

Because what is going to be newport in 20 years?

And when I told you about Charlie about Bar Harbor, Bar Harbor is not really newport, but Bar Harbor, you go, and in winter there is nobody.

And what we want with this city, that all the citizens of the city that are middle income, that we are not um affluent people, we need to go to other places because there is no jobs for us, only the tourist season is people that is coming and go, because Bar Harbor is dark in in winter, you know.

I mean, I I remember because I saw those uh that I visit the place.

So I was able to talk on many things, but I think uh you you understand what I want to mean, you know.

I think it need to be more things in Newport than only duties.

Tourists is very valuable, it brings a lot of money, but uh people as well.

We are not doing a livable city, and we have to talk with the others to see how we can do these sex sections of the island that each one has their their well, that we can have open space, that we can have duties, that we can have blue economy, those kind of things.

So I I I totally agree with you about the three uh communities coming together, including I think Jamestown.

But um, but let's just not forget that the state spent 50 million dollars on the bridge realignment in order to create the connectivity with the the north end to the the center of the city.

So that we worked on that for a long time, and we got rid of that road to nowhere, and and now the the issue, of course, is that the development of that land it's gonna be another challenge.

It's just one, it's just another challenge.

So um, you know, we'll it could take 20 years to make that happen because everything happened so slowly, but you know, I uh we have addressed the fact that the north end was cut off, and now we have the bike path.

We have we have the the the ability for people to be able to move from the north end to the center of town.

Yeah, and you are trying.

There are in in four years that I was out, there were things that were not before, you know.

But for example, now we don't know what is going on with Carpionato, but we know that we have a plan that was needs like uh that consider also, I mean, because also another thing that was saying here is that uh they you were saying numbers, economic numbers, and part of the economic numbers that compared with other cities is that as you say, there are a really big uh uh low income uh population, and also we have to include that low-income population in the development of this city and making them part of something, you know.

We we don't, okay, give me this, give me that.

That is not the way of include people.

We need to include that really in the economy of the of the city and and make it happen, you know.

And those are the things I I know that you are trying, but it's not happening, so maybe we have to try with more energy and try with the.

I think it's I think it's baby steps because everything takes a long time.

I mean, I know that that's it, that seems like a cop-out, but it's not.

I mean, we uh we're always working toward a goal, and and that those are the goals that we're always working toward.

It might not seem that way, and this is why I think that it's so important to have discussions such as this so that the public does know what it is that we've been doing.

I mean, we have been trying to diversify the economy.

We had a hydroponics company that came to us and they wanted to build, but then they decided they pulled out for whatever reason.

I don't know.

We had a quantum computer company that wanted to build, then they they pulled out.

So it's like you know, you're you you're you can only you can't, you know, if they don't come, you can't stop them.

You know, it was an old director said that.

And that's true.

I mean, there we we can't just bring people in all of a sudden and diversify the economy because we want to, they want to, they have to want to be here.

Yeah, it's little steps, but I mean, I think uh what I express is my vision, and I think also the three municipalities need to think about that and the area that is totally not developed because it's a super fund, and something needs to be done there, because that will be also a great space, Burma Road for a big space of uh people for but for uh housing, for office, for things.

So we we can do it.

I think I think we can do it with energy and with passion.

It is owned by someone else.

Yeah, I know, but I mean right now they want to do nothing.

I have continued to talk to them nothing.

You mean copianata?

Yeah, no, well, uh I was saying the the Navy property, which is a super fun, you know.

Well, what I'm saying, that that is part of Newport, Middletown, and for Smith.

The three municipalities have partly of the naval naval property, you know.

Uh you know what I'm talking.

Uh yeah, are you talking where the naval hospital was?

Well, no, no only the naval hospitality, not Burma Road, that's Middletown.

Yeah, I mean the three municipalities have part of that area that it can be also something.

That would be a good idea.

This is a really good discussion, and that's very helpful.

Thank you.

So um that's an adding more fuel to the fire.

Yeah, we have and I think there's good um precedent and recent work with the um island wide hazard mitigation plan, and you know, there's there is there are many issues that are not um do not respect municipal boundaries, and so I think that um and that is something that is a recommendation, like I said, we were cherry picking, but there are references in many of the element chapters um up to regional coordination and um collaboration.

So I mean you want to show the next steps.

I know it's we have uh tomorrow we have a couple uh yes workshops.

Yes, so we'll have workshops um Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

We have um on Thursday morning a meeting with our advisory committee, and then we will be working this summer on building out strategies folding in the kind of discussion and and uh conversations these week the this week, and then um we'll be back for a public open house uh like I said, that um August 27th.

And so um I suspect if if these bodies are meeting, we'll be briefing you as well that week.

Um and um if in the meantime you wanna connect, you we're happy to do that.

So one more person that we're only have a couple minutes left.

I'll be quick.

Could you just show that slide for tomorrow again?

Yes, thank you.

Or for tomorrow, you mean the the August meeting or the meeting for tomorrow, like the agenda for the yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah, the fun that one, yeah.

Okay, great.

Hi, uh, I'm uh is there someone?

Yes, okay, great.

Uh I'm Bart Lloyd, and I just want to talk about the housing element a little bit.

A couple pieces here that I think in, you know, I think that we if we want to have housing, if we want to have affordable housing, we've got to actually do things to make it happen.

Libra had a great plan, and it included a bunch of stuff like buy right, two families, smaller lot sizes, you know, make three districts and make them real big a great bunch of tools that has not been used, and you know, this isn't hap gonna happen unless people at this table do something.

Um, you know, in the you've had two Connor Melville developments that the city could have required affordable housing and didn't, you know, and it's not gonna happen unless people here make tough decisions, and they're gonna be unpopular, and they're gonna be a lot of people who say I don't want that, and someone has to speak for the future generation.

If we're gonna get people here, then I'm gonna come if we continue doing exactly what we've done for the last 20 years, which is nothing.

So one requirement amongst others is we should have a uh inclusionary zoning ordinance.

Uh the North End Urban Plan is a great thing, but it has no affordability requirements whatsoever.

Unless you want excess density, you can get up to 34.

You know, it has some things.

We should have an ordinance that says that any project over a certain size, I think 20 units should have 20% affordable housing.

And affordable housing for us is not low, low income housing.

It's 60% of median income housing.

That's workforce housing.

Um so I the uh the message I want to give is it's gonna require us actually not just having plans, but actually doing things.

And I think it's a very frustrating thing for many of us who are participating to see the city have great plans and not act on them.

So that's it.

Thanks, Mark.

Okay, well, thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Um we'll see the next workshop.

This term quickly, uh great discussion.

Great discussion.

I think two things on the super warning.

What things can be made are going to be on the economic side.

I think one of the problems about all tourism is that we have the revenue side.

What does it cost Newport to have 15,000?

Yeah, 15,000 extra cars per day.

What's the where options?

Yeah, we haven't studied those years ago, which is what you have over 40% of dark windows in the evening.

And the other one was along the lines of strategies for the other group that are those discussions along with something heavens, you know, what we did in the base here economically.

I I I would just like to have uh a number if if that 13,000 is so much more than what we've had over the last 30 years.

I would like to because it's always been that way.

And I'd like to know it is it is it the same as it was?

Is it this is it a lot more?

I I think that 13,000 number is a little bit deceiving because it's not like all of a sudden last year 13,000 cars just showed up.

But well, of course, but uh but I'm also saying you know, what what what's the differential here?

Um and so I mean, you know, uh Olmsted Junior thought there was too many cars back in 1905.

So, you know, it's it's it's just I'm I'm just saying I want I'd like to know, I'd like to know that information.

Okay, yeah, well we'll see what we can find.

Um five million shirts every season.

Somebody said to be four.

I'm hearing like that's a big million people living from two years ago.

Do we have another number?

I mean, I don't know where the chief dot I've heard right, is every anywhere between three and a half and five four is the number I usually up, but I would look into it.

I think you know that's what we're trying to we've been uh you know looking at the cruise ship data, looking at the moorings, looking at the hotels.

You know, I think we're trying to like assemble something that we can hang our hat on.

Um like Kevin, I think it said in red, work in progress.

So um, you know, we're we're working on getting to that number just to understand the scale.

Yeah.

Uh we're we're at 835.

Thank you to everybody.

Uh thanks, planning staff, thanks, consultants, thanks city council members, planning board members, and members of the public for showing up and participating.

Good night.

I sent an email, I'm just checking to get it and we'll make questions.

I got it in the right.

Yeah, okay.