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The iconic Veterans Memorial Parkway in East Providence is in danger of ruination by alterations proposed by the developers of the former Metacomet golf club. These alterations include a roundabout at Lyon Avenue with expanded lanes in both directions. They are strictly for the benefit of the developer in order to accommodate the additional thousands of daily vehicle trips to and from the 890 residences and 153,000sf of retail and commercial businesses planned there.

The Parkway was designed and constructed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers in the early 1900s. It had been envisioned by the Metropolitan Park Commission, which was created in 1904 and tasked with the development of a series of parks and scenic landscapes connected by parkways. An early MPC report referred to the Barrington Parkway (its original name) as a “scenic pleasure drive designed to offer connectivity between green spaces while also providing uninterrupted east and west views, protected by park-like reservations of land on either side.”

The Parkway is on the State’s list of scenic roadways and is recognized as eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Laws, rules and regulations were written to preserve and protect it from exactly what is proposed now. The developer knew all this, but chose to go full steam ahead, seemingly with the hope that State agencies will turn a blind eye.

Over the years, people have built homes along the Parkway with the confidence that it would forever remain scenic and pleasurable. They did not expect it to become a commercial highway to service a developer’s grand project. Tractor trailer trucks delivering to the massive grocery store complex are projected to rumble down the Parkway 60 round trips per day. And that’s just for the grocery store! 

Commuters to and from East Bay will no doubt experience delays while fighting the additional traffic. Bike Path riders and pedestrians will be subject to the noise and smell from these thousands of additional vehicles per day. If the roundabout is built, they will be expected to navigate their way through it to cross the Parkway while dodging all these vehicles.

Rhode Island State agencies will soon be deciding the Parkway’s fate: whether to abide by all the regulations that say development projects along the Parkway must be limited to its traffic or to cave to the developer and allow alterations that will forever change the Parkway and impact the quality of life of the people of East Providence.

The nonprofit citizens advocacy group Keep Metacomet Green created this petition to let the decisionmakers on State and perhaps Federal levels that the Parkway is part of our community’s culture and our historic past. We urge you to sign it and use your voice to Stop the Destruction of Veterans Memorial Parkway!