I hope that you were able to safely enjoy this holiday weekend. We are still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and it’s imperative to wear a mask and practice social distancing. I have heard from residents and local businesses who are concerned about how many people do not seem to be following public health guidance and I am continually sharing these concerns with City Administration as we work to improve compliance. The City has also worked with the State to step up enforcement of the public health guidelines in place.
The Council is meeting this Wednesday in person for the first time since March. In preparation for this meeting, City staff have erected plexiglass dividers between each seat on the Council dais. The meeting will still be streamed on Zoom and the public can join via Zoom or the telephone to comment or ask questions during the meeting the same as has been done over the past few months. Public participation is a hugely important component of our local government. I look forward to seeing how we transition to meeting in person again, and I ask that you please share your thoughts and observations about the meeting.
There is a resolution on this week’s docket that seeks to build on the Planning Board’s work on short-term rentals and how we can better regulate their presence in Newport. Short term rentals can drastically change the makeup of our neighborhoods if we do not take the initiative to properly regulate them. The availability of housing for full-time residents can be negatively affected if short-term rentals are not thoughtfully addressed. The resolution asks the Planning Board to study issues concerning sticker parking visitor passes issued to guesthouses, transient guest facilities being allowed in the Limited Business District by special use permit, and a renewal process for special use permits issued for guest houses. All of these items were flagged by the Planning Board as needing further review so that recommendations can be made to the Council.
Another resolution concerns the traffic on Malbone Road, Girard Avenue, and Hillside Avenue. These roads are all heavily used by pedestrians as well as cars. Both the Master Transportation Plan and the realignment of the Pell Bridge ramps aim to improve safety in this area, but in the interim a short term solution is needed to decrease the speed of traffic and make it safer for pedestrians, especially our youth, to use these roads.
The proposal to prohibit food trucks from operating on Bellevue Ave is on this week’s docket again. This item has been continued multiple times; first to ask for recommendations from the City Solicitor and then because an attorney representing a local food truck requested a continuance. We spent months working last year to determine the right locations and regulations for mobile food establishments in Newport and the ordinances were drafted and voted on with ample participation both from the public and the full Council. The current regulations are clear and fair to business; food trucks may operate in all zoning districts where restaurants are allowed by right, so long as they are not closer than 250 feet to a restaurant. Zoning ordinances are the tools that we use to regulate the types of business than can operate throughout the city in a fair and consistent manner. I believe that if we want to prohibit a certain type of business in a specific area of the city, it should be addressed through our zoning ordinances.