Letter: Dear Senator Reed...please help us Keep Metacomet Green

Posted 2/3/22

Editor’s note: This piece of correspondence was sent to the office of U.S. Senator Jack Reed and submitted to The Post as a Letter to the Editor.

January 28, 2022 Dear Senator Reed—

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Letter: Dear Senator Reed...please help us Keep Metacomet Green

Posted

Editor’s note: This piece of correspondence was sent to the office of U.S. Senator Jack Reed and submitted to The Post as a Letter to the Editor.

January 28, 2022
Dear Senator Reed—

Yesterday, you spent some time in East Providence. Mayor Bob DaSilva commented on his Facebook page that you and he “toured different parts of the city” and that you “discussed some of the infrastructure needs of our city that may qualify for federal funding.”

I asked him in a comment whether he had taken you by the site of the former Metacomet golf course on the iconic Veterans Memorial Parkway to show you where the peaceful quality of life in our community would be devastated by the mixed use development of 60+ acres of that parcel over a construction project lasting 10 years. He didn’t choose to reply.

If you are familiar with that area, you will know that it is abutted by a well-established residential community on narrow side streets, the historic Pierce Memorial Field public park, as well as the Parkway itself. Hennessey Elementary School is a mere block away.

Keep Metacomet Green, the grassroots group/nonprofit corporation that I represent, has battled for a year and a half to keep this completely out-of-scale development—including 5-story residential/commercial buildings, 25,000-30,000-sf retail stores, drive-thru fast food outlets and liquor stores—from happening on this pristine open space.

We represent a Facebook membership of over 2800 East Providence and East Bay residents, as well as a smattering of others who support our cause. Two of five City Council members, as well as the City’s Conservation Commission, and over 5200 signers of an online petition and several handwritten ones, agree that this proposal is completely inappropriate. DEM and CRMC have expressed some concerns, as well as a former director of Save the Bay.

KMG has urged the Mayor and majority of the City Council to revisit eminent domain to take the property from the developer for an equitable price or, more collegially, to pursue a “friendly” purchase. We further urge our City officials to lease out the 18-hole golf course to be managed as a public municipal course and to build a community center on the footprint of the old clubhouse. We contend that the City and State are awash in COVID relief money and infrastructure funds that could be put to use for this project.

Next time you and the Mayor enjoy a tour and a fine meal at one of our local restaurants, please bring this up with him. He won’t listen to us.

Thank you. I look forward to your reply.

Candy Seel
East Providence
Keep Metacomet Green administrator

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