Cranston's City Council president told a committee this week that the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) has dropped a plan to take part of a condominium property by eminent domain for a shared-use path, after residents and city officials objected within days of learning about it.
The account came during council communications at the Public Works Committee meeting held Wednesday, August 5, according to the Cranston Public Works Committee and Ordinance Committee's published meeting recording. The item was docketed as a discussion of concerns about a RIDOT shared-use path and an associated bike lane.
What was proposed
Wall, the council president, said residents of Royal Ridge Condominium were told roughly two or three weeks earlier that part of their property would be taken for what RIDOT called a shared-use path — in his description, a wide sidewalk for walking, running and wheeled use. Eminent domain is the government's power to take private property for public use, with compensation.
Local sponsorAffordable photography lessons in Newport, Jamestown, or your town.E.L. Photo RIHe described the path as about eight feet wide, cutting through the middle of the property's landscaping, and said construction was expected to take about a year and a half. Some units, he said, would have had path users passing close to their decks. He also said the plan included striping a bike lane roughly a mile and a half along two city roads to connect with an existing bike path.
How officials say they found out
Wall said he first heard of the plan the Thursday before the meeting, when residents invited him to a meeting RIDOT held with the condominium association. He said the project sounded settled by then, with the next step being a price for the property. He said he was "dumbfounded" that the agency assumed it could take Cranston residents' property "without notifying them, without public comment, without a meeting."
The following day, he said, he hand-delivered a letter to every household in the affected area and rang doorbells to answer questions, a process that took a couple of days. He said he found no resident who supported the plan.
Moretti, the city administration director, told the committee the mayor had no knowledge of the current project. Moretti said the idea had been raised with the administration roughly two or three years earlier and the mayor opposed it then, after which it lay dormant. Moretti said he learned of the revived plan over the weekend, spoke with RIDOT's acting director at the mayor's direction, and was told the agency would not support it.
The reversal
Wall said the council received a letter from RIDOT the Monday before the meeting. He read from it: "We understand the concerns of the community, and before we plan any bike facilities along these roads, we will reach out to our city and begin public outreach." Uprise RI has not independently reviewed the letter; the quotation is as read into the record.
RIDOT's point person on the matter, Mark McHugh, attended the meeting on a separate cemetery-permit item. Wall noted McHugh "didn't have to be here at this time because it's been resolved."
What is unresolved
No vote was taken on the path. The recording does not make clear whether the project is formally withdrawn or only paused pending outreach, nor what the timeline for any future public process would be. Wall framed the outcome as a lesson for the agency: "Hopefully, going forward, as RIDOT plans this, whether it be in Cranston or any other surrounding communities, they think about this moment."
He credited residents directly, saying the condominium owners "were the catalyst." Ritz, a councilman, relayed praise from neighborhood residents for the outreach.
Residents who want to track the matter can watch future Public Works Committee agendas, posted on the city's calendar page, for any return of the shared-use path or bike lane item.