Why build another gas station?

To the Editor:

Cumberland Farms wants to build yet another mega-station. This time, however, in a residential neighborhood at Edgewood’s most troubled intersection at Park and Warwick Avenues. I’ve lived in Edgewood since 1998 and grew up thirty-forty feet from this proposed site. A site I’d like to add that has been purposely neglected by its owner, who has never been reprimanded. More than eleven thousand people travel through Park/Warwick Avenues on a daily basis. Growing up so close to this site/ intersection I’ve seen countless accidents including with Fire apparatus located at Cranston station No. 1, which is also just feet from this proposed site. Traffic can be so bad at times the Fire Department has to leave the station into oncoming traffic and up onto my family’s sidewalks, which are demolished from the weight of the trucks. Many residents have expressed themselves and concerns to the City of Cranston Planning/council members, however they fear some of them may not be able to simply look beyond what’s located at the site now. That isn’t fair, it’s their responsibility/duty to look beyond what’s currently located at the proposed site.

Residents who live in the immediate area fear for their children’s health and safety due to the proposed fuel tanks/pumps located some twenty feet from residential homes on Henry Street, directly behind the proposed site. When is enough going to be enough? Edgewood is not a commercial C3 Highway commercial district, nor was it ever designed or intended to have something of such magnitude located at this site/intersection. When will our City Council finally look beyond what they see now? This is not safe/sensible development by any means. Cumberland Farms is simply not for the best or better of Edgewood in 2018, just like it wasn’t in 2015 when our Council denied it. What has changed from the 2015 plans to the current 2018 plans besides a few “curb- cuts”? Why is the lawyer for Cumberland Farms John Bolton also a municipal judge with the City of Cranston, asking for a yes vote from the very council members he’s donated to and was elected by? Why are these types of actions/developments allowed to go on in the City of Cranston? So many interesting and unanswered questions we all deserve clear honest answers to. Edgewood is a part of Cranston that has been neglected and skipped over for years. We the residents know what’s best for our little Edgewood. This Cumberland Farms proposal is out of scale, character, and size for Edgewood. It also isn’t the type of development that should be happening in 2018 when there is a huge lack of need for this in the neighborhood. When something so clearly affects so many properties/people including children in a negative way, what gives you the right to make the wrong decision after the right one was made back in 2015? Why are we wasting taxpayer time and money going backwards with something that was already denied? Jason Pezzullo, the new head of City Planning must understand first to do no harm – basic planning, zoning and ordinance day one fundamentals. Please make the right and fair decision again, for all of us who live here in Edgewood.

Jordan M. Fratus

Cranston