Coventry residents want more trees between them and the lorry sector

COVENTRY — Nearly a decade after residents of a Hopkins Hill neighborhood complained about the effects of living next to a truck repair company, neighbors say the city still hasn’t done anything to improve their quality of life.

This, despite the finalization of a legal action two and a half years ago, which was supposed to provide some relief.

The plight of the neighbors was detailed in a Hummel Report investigation, published in the Providence Sunday Journal in the summer of 2018. Since then, a court case has made its way through Superior Court and the state Supreme Court .

At the same time, the city of Coventry has gone through several city managers, building officials and municipal lawyers, leaving few people in City Hall with an institutional memory of what happened over the years.

And it leaves Helen Avenue homeowners exasperated, as they say the city has failed to enforce a court ruling against Ferrara Mechanical Services and its owner, Daniel Ferrara, that would have at least restored a thick buffer of trees and bushes that he had cut down. 2016. The buffer zone had largely obscured trucking operations at 225 Hopkins Hill Road.

“Honestly, (Ferrara) doesn’t think the city is a real threat. He keeps pushing them back,” said Cathy Theroux, whose Helen Avenue backyard abuts the company’s driveway, where large trucks are parked and sometimes idle — in violation of a court order issued years ago.

“(Ferrara) feels like he can do whatever he wants, no matter what,” said Tyler Albert, whose backyard is also adjacent to the business. “And no one will tell him otherwise. It’s his attitude.

Daniel Parrillo, who became Coventry city manager in March 2023, acknowledges he has had to get up to speed on the history of the case, but said he has been to Ferrara several times and worked with him to restore the stamp.

“I’m doing my best,” Parrillo told the Hummel Report. “I don’t want to go back to court. I don’t want to spend money on lawyers.

Through his attorney, Ferrara declined our request for an interview, instead issuing a single-paragraph statement: “The Ferraras are pleased that the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled that they can continue to operate their family business and that they have conducted their family business in accordance with the law. terms of this decision.

He didn’t address the tampon.

Background to the battle for the stamp

The city — at the urging of neighbors on Helen Avenue and several other nearby homes — filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in 2016, claiming that Ferrara significantly expanded the business after its purchase in 2008. The suit challenged whether he had “grandfathered rights” to direct national vehicle inspections and repairs.

The tipping point, however, occurred when Ferrara cut down a thick area of ​​trees and bushes required by city ordinance to separate a commercial zone from a residential zone, then laid down asphalt . This had largely hidden what was happening beyond neighbors’ property lines.

Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl held a three-day trial in December 2017, then issued a 21-page ruling nine months later, saying the company was a non-compliant use and could sue its activities. However, she also ordered stipulations that included, among other things, prohibiting trucks from parking along the fence adjacent to neighbors’ yards and a restriction on idling.

Perhaps the most significant order, neighbors say, is that the judge asked Ferrara to reestablish a 50-foot buffer zone, where possible.

“The buffer zone will be restored with dense planting of vegetation or appropriate landscaping so as to provide a thick screen between the property and adjacent residential dwellings,” Judge McGuirl wrote. “(The company) is ordered to restore the buffer zone in a sound manner by agreement of the parties.”

The city objected to McGuirl’s decision that the business could operate and grow at its site, and Coventry appealed his decision to the Rhode Island Supreme Court instead of accepting the decision that would have started restoration of the buffer zone.

And that meant whatever McGuirl had ordered was on hold. It took nearly three years for the Supreme Court to issue a 10-page decision upholding McGuirl’s initial decision. Two years later, the neighbors say they find themselves in the same situation they have experienced for almost a decade.

“My biggest concern was I didn’t want to see what was going on out there, smell the dust or have 9,000-gallon gas tankers against my fence when my kids wanted to play outside,” Albert said . “I just want the tampon.”

Theroux added: “We would like all six (court orders) to be carried out, because that is the decision of the court. But obviously, the buffer was extremely important to us, because it’s the only way to give us some peace of mind.

“Charlie Brown Trees” or legit stamps?

Parrillo, the city manager, said Ferrara planted 32 4-foot evergreen bushes along the fence, hoping they will grow in years to come and provide a strong buffer.

“The (neighbors) want tall shrubs and bushes. We’re trying to get to that point,” Parrillo said.

Albert dismissed the plantings, describing them as “Charlie Brown trees” that would take years to grow taller than his 6-foot backyard fence. A section of Albert’s fence collapsed last summer during a storm, revealing two of the shrubs. He didn’t know they were there.

And drone footage taken by The Hummel Report shows the trees don’t block neighbors’ view of the truck repair business. Images show a row of trees lining the property, but the line of leaves is too high above the ground to block the view of Ferrara’s business.

“It was supposed to replant the buffer, not wait years for it to come back,” Theroux said, adding that she was frustrated that the city had not acted more aggressively on behalf of neighbors.

Theroux said that when she first contacted Parrillo, the director said he couldn’t find any records of the case at City Hall.

“I said it was ridiculous. When the city attorney leaves, he doesn’t take the files; they put them back,” Theroux said. “There were other people involved in the city. It was a trial. You can’t walk away with the records.

And no one has photos of the stamp before it was destroyed.

Albert said he and the neighbors would like to see a detailed plan of what will happen in the spring: which trees will be purchased, a map of where they will be planted and when Ferrara plans to finish the project.

He said the bushes he currently has planted are inadequate.

“I ask that a project plan be developed during the winter, because we cannot plant now, because it is too late,” said Albert, who works as a project manager.

“I know (Parrillo) has a lot of growing up to do. This city has a lot of problems facing it. I understand, but we have four months to get to a position where we can actually plant something in the ground,” he continued.

The Hummel Report is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that relies, in part, on donations. For more information, visit HummelReport.org. Contact Jim at [email protected].

This article was originally published in The Providence Journal: In Coventry, a fight between a business and its neighbors over trees