Update on Gano Street Parking Lot

It’s taken seven years — and last month’s Hummel Report investigation — for the city of Providence to take two property owners to court after they consistently ignored violation notices and repeated orders to stop using land they own on the East Side for an illegal parking lot.

Our investigation last month revealed the city of Providence has inexplicably failed to enforce any of the dozens of violation notices it has issued, stretching back more than a decade. Neighbors argued using the lot (located directly adjacent to an on ramp to Route 195) was a safety hazard and a Superior Court judge agreed the zoning board should not have given the required variance. But the owners have consistently used it for tenant parking anyway.

Two weeks after our story ran, the city solicitor’s office filed a lawsuit against owners Stephen Puleo and Michelle Boutin in Superior Court demanding they stop using the lot for parking and asking the court to fine them up to $500 a day for every day – since August of 2006.

That translates to more than $1.3 million.

The suit was filed by assistant city solicitor Lisa Dinerman, who also serves as legal counsel to the city’s Zoning Board. Through a public records request to the city, The Hummel Report also obtained 39 pages of records that detail the city’s efforts to stop the parking through three administrations at City Hall, but no one ever followed through with the threat.

The documents have a familiar ring, going back as far as fall 2001. “No permits to date,” a field report from a city building inspector reads. In October 2010, a complaint notice  from the Department of Inspections and Standards reads “using lot for parking.”

And in January 2012: “Still using lot for parking vehicles.” But it also has a line that says, “Send to Court” that is crossed out without any reason why.

The head of the inspections division, Jeff Lykins, during an interview for our story last month, said he could not explain the lack of enforcement.

“My research is a little difficult in that this is old enough that a majority of people involved back then are no long with the department,” Lykins said. “So I’ve had a little trouble getting all of the facts.”

At times city departments didn’t seem to know what each other was doing.

On November 5, 2007, the Department of Inspections and Standards told the owners to cease and desist using the lot. “Failure to do so will cause the matter to be referred to the city of Providence Law Department of Law for legal action.”

But two weeks earlier, an assistant city solicitor sent the owners a letter threatening fines. None of the paperwork we obtained shows the city has collected a dime.

The lot has a ‘For Sale’ sign on it and when we called the number in November, Stephen Puleo didn’t hide the fact that he uses the lot for parking.

Puleo: You know I can’t sell one without the other because that I use for parking.

Hummel: So you use the lot for what, tenants for parking?

Puleo: Yeah, I got sometimes like two, three cars it depends, that’s all I use it for, not much more than that.

Puleo didn’t mention the city has a put a lien on the property.

And the city continues to defend its action, or lack thereof.

Lykins: We’re pursuing it. The Law Department is handling it right now.

Hummel: But you weren’t pursuing it until we brought it to your attention.

Lykins: I wasn’t aware of it. We have a very high caseload here and that’s been exacerbated by the economy; it causes a lot of people to fall out of compliance.

In addition to the fines, the city is asking for a permanent injunction against the owner. Meanwhile, cars continued to park in the lot regularly after the lawsuit was filed. That all changed on December 13 when the owners agreed — in court — not to park any more vehicles there.

The city will pursue fines at a later date.

To see the video version of this story go to http://www.hummelreport.org/Stories/12.12.2013.gano.html. If you have a story idea, contact Jim Hummel directly at jim@hummelreport.org