East Providence Group Blasts Development Plan for Historic Metacomet Golf Course

East Providence Group Blasts Development Plan for Historic Metacomet Golf Course

Legendary Donald Ross designed the course at Metacomet Golf Club 100 years ago.

Now, real estate developers Marshall Properties, who purchased the course from Rhode Island golf legend Brad Faxon and a group of investors, are planning to turn the property into a supermarket-anchored suburban shopping center flanked by more than 800 apartments.

The community group, Keep Metacomet Green, is blasting the proposed development.

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"The Keep Metacomet Green community is appalled at the 890 new residences and 153,000 sf of retail space that Marshall/Metacomet Properties is proposing for the historic Metacomet Golf. Course land. East Providence's current and speculated housing developments total approximately 2000, without the Metacomet property and without knowledge of the finished plan for the Waterfront land on the Veterans Memorial Parkway where the old oil tanks stood,” said Heather Andrade of Keep Metacomet Green.

Faxon and his team had promised to invest in the historic course but instead flipped and made millions on the short-term investment.

“The neighborhood surrounding the development is a family community with Pierce Field football stadium, playground, and ball fields directly across the street on Lyons Avenue. Agnes Hennessey Elementary School is one block up on Fort Street. Safety for the children is a huge concern. The repercussions from this unnecessary and unwanted development will have a lasting impact on not just East Providence residents, but also wildlife, climate change, flooding, traffic noise, and light levels,” added Andrade.

"That being said Marshall Properties and the East Providence Waterfront Commission must follow strict rules and regulations of the East Providence Comprehensive Plan and the EPWCs own,” she said. "Maybe one of the most important facts at the moment is that PAL, The Public Archeology Laboratories, a well-respected cultural resource management firm, has completed an archeological assessment on some of the Metacomet land."

"PALs report, included in the Marshall Properties online plan, states that the Metacomet land is an archaeologically sensitive area and an archeological survey should be done on the higher elevated land of the golf course. Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission has previously stated that should the Metacomet land other than the golf course be developed, RIHPHC will require an archeological survey at the owners expense,” according to Andrade.

"This survey must be done before digging can begin in the higher elevated land. Meanwhile, our group will continue to advocate to save as much green space as we can on both the Metacomet land and Veterans Memorial Parkway," she said.