PROVIDENCE — Residents of South Providence and Washington Park looking to beat the heat this summer are having to go without one of their neighborhoods’ most significant parks and coastal access points.
Long considered a hidden gem, Collier Point Park is a 6-acre green space tucked away between the city’s industrial waterfront on Allens Avenue and a ribbon of highways that make up the Interstate 95 and Interstate 195 interchange. The park, which first opened in 1996, is one of only two coastal access points available to residents of those neighborhoods.
But there’s a twist. The park isn’t owned by the city. The land and park are owned by the Starwood Energy Group, which operates the nearby natural gas-fired Manchester Street Generating Station.
Starwood Energy closed the park to the public in mid-May, citing vandalism concerns and damage to the park’s infrastructure. Residents attempting to access the park via its Henderson Street entrance will see imposing black metal gates in their way.
“Unfortunately, the park was vandalized by someone who cut into the lighting, camera, communication, and access control circuitry cables to steal the copper, creating an unsafe situation for the community,” the company wrote in a statement to ecoRI News. “We are in the process of repairing, troubleshooting, and replacing the cabling, but that work is still ongoing. We will endeavor to reopen the park as soon as practicable.”
The company didn’t provide a date for the park’s reopening.
Unusual for green space, Collier Point Park was at the center of alterations to the city’s tax stabilization agreement with Dominion Energy, the then-owner of the Manchester Street power plant, in 2018. The Providence Journal reported at the time that the original agreement was being altered to excise a provision that would transfer ownership of the park to the city, or be subject to a $300,000 tax penalty. Dominion kept the land and eventually agreed to pay $150,000 as part of a settlement with the city.
Local residents looking to visit Collier Point Park this summer have been disappointed. The waterfront park has been closed since mid-May because of vandalism. (Rob Smith/ecoRI News)
Collier Point Park is one of the few publicly available parks in that section of South Providence, and one of only two coastal rights of way (ROW) for local residents to access the Providence River, with many of the industrial businesses along the city’s waterfront providing no coastal access at all.
The other local ROW, Public Street, has no park attached to it, and the city is in the process of designing an attractive public space to improve public access.
The next nearest green space with coastal access for South Providence and Washington Park is the Save The Bay campus on Fields Point, 3 miles away from Collier Point Park.
It’s a strong disparity compared to the rest of Rhode Island. On the list of ROWs designated by the Coastal Resources Management Council, there is only a sparse few located in environmental justice communities in Providence and Pawtucket. Whiter and wealthier communities south of Providence have many more public access options.
“We have no place to relax by the water, put into a boat, or a Jet Ski, or whatever,” Washington Park resident Linda Perri said. “Collier Point Park is the only South Providence waterfront access we have at all, and Save The Bay doesn’t do anything. It’s not a bus line. It doesn’t do anything for the hot population.”