Cranston City Council member-elect Steve Stycos provides an update:

HONEY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Warwick beekeeper Bernie Bieder wishes all Pawtuxet Village Farmers Market customers a wonderful holiday and New Year. He has honey and honeystix for stocking stuffers for sale and is taking candle orders. You can reach Bernie at 463-8654.

EXTRA SIGNS & TOBACCO PROMOTION

Two controversial Edgewood businesses are seeking zoning variances. Stop & Shop on Warwick Avenue wants building signs that are 50 percent greater than permitted under city ordinances and a Narragansett Boulevard pizza parlor wants to open a hookah bar.
Both variance requests will be heard at the January 4 Planning Commission meeting and then the January 12 Zoning Board of Review meeting.

Stop & Shop, which won Cranston City Council approval to build its store thanks to a change in the zoning code, wants 457 square feet of signs at its store, although only 300 square feet are permitted. Its proposal includes a 20 foot high, 129 square foot free standing sign at the northern entrance to the parking lot on Warwick Avenue and small signs indicating “pharmacy,” “natural foods” and other items on the store outside wall, in addition to the well known Stop & Shop logo.

The variance is sought by Churchill & Banks LLC, the owner of the Stop & Shop property. The corporation bribed three North Providence city councilmen to win a zoning change for a store. It’s president, Richard Baccari, has been connected with a number of questionable business practices, including selling water damaged vehicles at the former Liberty Chevrolet and more recently trying to build condominiums on a rare Narragansett tribal village archeological site.

The hookah bar is proposed for northern end of the Boulevard Pizza shop. Cranston zoning ordinances do not mention any zone for hookah bars, where tobacco is smoked with water pipes, so the board will have to decide whether it is appropriate in the northern Edgewood neighborhood.

I oppose both proposals. Churchill & Banks won the right to build with questionable tactics and should not be given any special favors. The neighbors have seen their property values drop thanks to the company’s strip mine style development. Excessive ugly signs will only make the property look worse. As for the hookah bar, we should do nothing to encourage the consumption of tobacco. Our taxes pay for tobacco use through increased health insurance premiums and employee absences caused by lung related illnesses. More smoking means more addicted smokers and more tax money spent on their medical treatment.

The zoning board will also hear a variance request for a mother-in-law apartment in the garage at 305 Bay View Avenue.

I urge people to attend both meetings and help kill the two proposals. The Planning Commission meeting starts at 7 PM and the Zoning Board meeting begins at 6:30 PM. Both will be held in City Council Chambers in City Hall. Information and agendas are available at http://www.cranstonri.com. Then go to the calendar section.

See you May 7 at the market.