The East Providence City Council seat representing Riverside will see a contested race in this year’s mid-term election, as political newcomer Jason Botelho announced last week he would be vying for the Ward 4 seat currently occupied by Rick Lawson.

Lawson announced on his Facebook page back in January that he would be seeking a second term on the council after winning in 2022 (beating Ricardo Dias Mourato 2,304 to 1,986).

Botelho, in a recent interview, said that he was interested in running because he was at a place in his life where he had the time and experience to feel as though he could contribute positively to the city he has called home for his whole life.

“I’m just passionate because it's a great place to live and I want to keep it that way,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to live here my whole life essentially, and the city's been great to me and I want to keep it keep it strong for the future generations.”

Botelho, 43, was born and raised in Riverside and graduated from East Providence High School in 2001. He has owned his home in Riverside for almost 10 years. In 2008, he started a small distribution company that delivers snack cakes to commercial retailers in eastern Massachusetts. He started with just one truck and grew the business to having 10 trucks on the road delivering to around 50 different stores, including large retailers like Walmart, Shaws, Market Basket and Stop & Shop.

In the past years, he scaled the business down to having five or six trucks on the road so he could focus on finishing his undergraduate studies, and he looks to obtain his degree in history in the late spring.

“I’ll be able to devote the time I was spending on school to getting out there and canvassing and talking to different people,” he said. “It's a bit of a challenge being new to politics, so I need to make myself available and meet as many people as I can and get their thoughts and ideas and what the issues are that concern them.”

As for those issues he foresees coming up at the doorsteps of potential voters, Botelho mentioned development as something that is front of mind for many people in Riverside, and he made the case that he would be a steward of responsible development that considers the need for the city to increase its tax revenue while still maintaining its charm and trying to find compromises between those two opposing forces.

“I think that's an issue that is not unique to East Providence,” he said. “It’s happening everywhere, and we need to be responsible, and plan responsibly.”

Botelho mentioned working on an assignment during his undergraduate studies where he examined land use in the Boston metro area back in the mid-1930s. He read an article from the time period, which argued that the town was growing too fast, and wouldn’t be able to sustain that kind of growth.

“I'm thinking to myself, okay, so in 1935 this was an issue,” he said. “Imagine if we just stopped growing in 1935? Most of our houses here in East Providence were built after that, so we wouldn't really have any place to go. It’s a balancing act where I think we do need to grow and evolve with the times.”

Botelho said that he believed a mix of housing was necessary in East Providence to enable older Townies to continue to afford living here, and allow younger families to move into the larger homes currently occupied by seniors who want to move in.

“No matter what happens, there needs to be housing options and it needs to be affordable,” he said. “And I think the more housing options you have, the more affordable it will be.”

The first development and housing-related issue Botelho will certainly run into when canvassing his neighbors regards the former Oldham school on Bullocks Point Avenue.

The city has plans to turn the building into a business incubator and community space of some kind, but those plans have become tumultuous as the anticipated cost to renovate the building — at least according to third-party analysis requisitioned from East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva’s office last year — would necessitate the inclusion of housing into the plan in order for a potential developer to find the project worthwhile and economically feasible.

The inclusion of any housing into the plan, for incumbent Lawson, is a “non-starter”, as he has said multiple times at council meetings and in an interview to this paper. The city’s initial proposal for the housing element included up to 96 units spread out over eight separate buildings, which drew significant ire from the community.

Botelho, while open to the concept of housing for the development, agreed it should be within a more reasonable range.

“It's a hot button topic. I think it's another one of those situations where we've got to approach it quite cautiously,” he said. “I don't think we should be putting, you know, 100 units or something like that there. I think that might be a little too extreme. But maybe we can kind of work and find a compromise where there's some housing component to it; that way a developer would want to take on the project.”

Botelho said it was important for younger people to get involved into city government, and for those in elected positions to be willing to work collaboratively towards a better future.

“The decisions we make today, they’re the ones that are going to be be impacted down the road,” he said. “I think we just need thoughtful leadership as our city grows and evolves. We need to focus on practical solutions and we need people that are willing to listen to others and kind of work collaboratively with others and be open to other suggestions.”