Boards & Commissions - Providence Redevelopment

Overview

The Providence Redevelopment Agency exists to make Providence’s neighborhoods better places to live, work and play.The Agency achieves this goal by working with private and non profit developers to redevelop the blighted and substandard properties that the Agency has acquired.Since its beginning, the Agency has carried out many projects throughout the City, working to replace blighted areas with well planned, integrated, stable, safe and healthful neighborhoods. Today, the Agency continues its efforts to create great neighborhoods through the development of new owner-occupied housing and to create jobs with the development of industrial parks.

The Agency is a seven member board established by state law (RIGL 45-31) and the city’s Home Rule Charter (Section 1108).The PRA was created in 1947 to address the problems of slum and blight in Providence. In order to carry out this mission, the Agency, with City Council and City Plan Commission approval, establishes Redevelopment Project Areas throughout the City. Within the Redevelopment Project Areas, the Agency is empowered to acquire and sell property, demolish, move or rehabilitate property, implement infrastructure and other public improvements, and restrict the use and the redevelopment of any property sold by the Agency.