PROVIDENCE -- Lawmakers on Smith Hill are working on new legislation that would give a boost to the industries that depend on Rhode Island's waterfront.
The bill, called the Rhode Island Working Waterfronts Protection Act, would empower the Coastal Resources Management Council to preserve and protect the state's working waterfronts and water-dependent uses.
The House Environment Committee heard from Providence Working Waterfront Alliance members and other state marine-related business owners on Tuesday.
"What we're afraid of and what we're against is the mixed-use residential, mixed-use hotels that wouldn't fit into the neighborhood," said Joel Cohen of the Providence Working Waterfront.
Providence city planner Thomas Deller said nothing much has happened with the waterfront over the past 20 years, and that the city needs to take that land area and have it grow.
"We need to make jobs happen. And if it happens to be waterfront related, industrial related...fantastic. But we need to grow jobs and tax base in this city. That's why we don't support this bill," he said.
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