NEIGHBORS FAULT COMPASSION CENTER PROPOSAL

PROVIDENCE -- A group of developers, residents and artists that have
helped transform a section of the Valley neighborhood into a thriving
community are upset with a proposal to establish a medical-marijuana
compassion center near them.

The state Health Department has yet to select operators for up to
three centers for people in the state's medical-marijuana program, but
officials are reviewing 15 applications and they are bound by a state
law to select an operator for the state's first marijuana dispensary
no later than July 30.

The Health Department hosted a hearing last Tuesday in which the
public was invited to support, oppose or ask questions about the 15
applicants who have proposed marijuana centers in Providence,
Pawtucket, Warwick, Portsmouth and northern Rhode Island.

At the hearing, a group led by Josephine DiRuzzo, a longtime city
councilwoman who represents the neighborhood, expressed opposition to
the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, at 431 Harris Ave.

The proposal calls for a full-service marijuana operation in two
buildings at the sprawling former Capitol Records Center building near
the intersection of Harris Avenue and Valley Street. Marijuana would
be grown indoors there.

DiRuzzo said the plans caught her and the neighborhood off-guard and
that the Health Department and city should have done a better job of
notifying them.

"My concern is that this is no location for a compassion center that
grows marijuana," she said. "It's just so highly populated."

Erik Bright, the developer and a resident at the Monohasset Mill
Complex, said that he would like the Health Department to postpone
this month's decision to give Slater officials more time to find a
home for the compassion center -- outside of his neighborhood.

"None of us are against compassion centers, but nobody talked to us,
and this isn't the right place," he said. "Why in the foothill of
Federal Hill? This is just the wrong place."

Bright pointed out that, in the past 15 years, about $200 million has
been spent to redevelop aging mill buildings in the neighborhood into
condominiums and the Steel Yard on Sims Avenue has become a magnet for
children and others interested in a variety of art and trade programs.

Drake Patten, the Steel Yard's executive director, said she has no
problem with the medical-marijuana program and compassion centers, but
she's concerned about the message a "fortress-like building" would
send to the neighborhood. "We're concerned with the scale of it," she
said.

Annemarie Beardsworth, Health Department spokeswoman, said the
concerns of DiRuzzo and others who testified and submitted letters in
opposition of the Slater Center will be taken into account in the
coming weeks.

Gerald J. McGraw Jr. and other Slater officials have emphasized that
the marijuana center would be tightly controlled and have a
state-of-the art-security system. They are confident that the business
would quickly blend into the neighborhood.

Chris Reilly, spokesman for the Slater group, said that the center's
executives will be happy to meet with local residents and listen to
their concerns. "Our main goal in the project is to help sick people,"
he said. "We just want to be a good neighbor."

DiRuzzo said she did know about the Slater center's plans three months
ago, but, at the time, the project's backers were eyeing the vacant
Eastern Butcher Block building on Eagle Street. The building is a
short walk to the Harris Avenue building.

On April 27, DiRuzzo met with officials from the city's Department of
Planning and Development and the Slater Center at City Hall. Among the
officials were McGraw, Slater's president; Wally Gernt, a project
consultant; and two planning officials: Bob Azar, director of current
planning, and Amintha Cinotti, deputy director.

She said that she never heard another word about the Slater Center
until she read a Providence Journal story June 28.

But city and Health Department officials point out that there had been
public notification.

On June 3, health officials released the names of the 15 applicants
complete with primary contacts and phone numbers. The information was
posted on the department's Web site and the Journal published a story
about it the next day.

A week later, the Health Department posted thousands of pages of
details on each of the proposals that included who would be running
the centers, where they might be located and budget
projections.

Sabina Matos, a candidate for Providence City Council in the
Olneyville neighborhood, was troubled with the Health Department's
decision to host the public hearing on a weekday morning. Comments
were limited to five minutes.

"The feedback I'm hearing from my neighbors is that they weren't given
a fair chance to speak out on this issue," she said. "Having morning
meetings in the basement of a state building is not an accessible,
fair way to conduct business."

Matos submitted a letter to the Health Department and the city's
Department of Planning and Development asking them to schedule another
public hearing for neighborhood residents.