The Hope Mill (Scituate, RI)

A small and inexperienced developer from Massachusetts named Paramount Development Group (PDG) is planning to convert eight of the ten existing buildings
in the Hope Mill complex into 94 apartments. They also plan to construct two
new buildings which are expected to house 99 apartments. In total, the development will consist of 334 bedrooms (141 two-bedroom apartments and 52 onebedroom apartments) and 236 parking spaces. More than half of the project will
be new construction. At the moment, eight of the ten Hope Mill complex buildings are under a sales agreement to PDG. That sale has not closed. The current
owner of the eight buildings (New England Development RI, LLC) is in receivership.
After, the sale has closed, two of ten buildings in the Hope Mill complex will remain in the hands of another owner, Nicholas Izzi. These two buildings will not
participate in PDG's development.
Not much is known about PDG. The head office listed on PDG"s Master Plan application and PDGs application for federal low income (LITHC) housing tax
credits is a Regus virtual office location in Boston. Anyone can rent this office
address, get a phone number from Regus and pretend that this address is their
actual office. According to PDGs website, they have converted three derelict
buildings in old industrial cities in Massachusetts into low-income housing units.
PDG has never tackled a project as complex as the Hope Mill project nor undertaken one located in a semi-rural area where there is little public infrastructure to
support the project. Nor has PDG handled a project that is the dominant building
in its area. PDGs actual office is a small tract house in Chelmsford Ma (165 Hunt
Rd. Chelmsford Ma). Richard Derosas, President of PDG and his Chelmsford
address are associated with a number of construction related businesses that
have gone through administration or dissolution (ie. bankruptcy). According
to website of Massachusetts Secretary of State. PDG was dissolved by Court Order or by the SOC (i.e. Secretary of State) on June 30, 2015.
The Hope Mill property will be owned by BMP, LLC which appears to be little
more than a shell company that exists only on paper that was created on July 15,
2015 to buy the Hope Mill. BMPs registered address is a residential property in
Portland, Maine (111 West St., Portland, Me.) that is currently being offered for

sale. There is no financial information available about BMP, LLC and BMP has
no credit history. It appears to have no full time employees. James Bollinger, the
President of BMP appears to run summer camp in Maine.
The proposed development will consist of a mixture of low-income housing (supported by federal tax credits) and workforce housing. Workforce housing is a
euphemism used by developers for low rent housing intended for low wage workers (e.g. Walmart, McDonalds employees) that is not subsidized by the government. The balance between the two types of housing will be determined by how
many tax credits the state of Rhode Island awards the project. PDG has said that
they will take as many tax credits as they are offered. Most developers in PDGs
position seek to build 100% low income housing projects for economic reasons.
To meet the requirements for low income housing tax credits, the planned development must include few amenities and consist of basic one and two bedroom
apartments.
PDG plans to construct a large-scale septic system (40-60,000 gallon/day capacity) to serve the development on the Hope Mill site. The Hope is situated on an
island. The sceptic system will be located within 200 feet of the Pawtuxet River
and the Hope Mill raceway.
In January of 2016, PDG filed with the Scituate Plan Commission a master plan
for their proposed development which cals for the conversion of eight of the existing Hope Mill buildings into 94 apartments. An additional 99 apartments will be
constructed in two new five-story buildings be built in the rear of the existing mill
buildings. The new buildings will be built on pillars with parking underneath. The
new buildings will located in a parking lot at the rear of the mill complex. The existing mill buildings will be restored in accordance with National Historic Preservation guidelines established by the National Park Service in order to secure federal Historic Preservation tax credits.
Upon completion, PDG expects occupancy of the project to be approximately 450
residents. Currently Hope Village has 157 housing units and a population of approximately 410 people. PDGs Hope Mill project will double the population of
Hope Village. The Town of Scituate has no plans to improve the infrastructure in
Hope Village to accommodate such a large increase in population. The Hope Mill
project is likely to exacerbate the existing infrastructure deficiencies that exist in
Hope Village.
The site that PDG is purchasing consists of 32 acres. 28 acres are located in Scituate and 8 acres are located in Coventry. 13 acres of the site are classified as ei-

ther wetlands or swamp. The Hope Mill is located on a 32 acre island. The Hope
Mill is located in a Natural Heritage Area (RIDEM) and Conservation Opportunity Area/Corridor (RIDEM). The site is located in the Hope Village Historic District and is a Historical Candidate site (state of RI), The existing mill buildings
are listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hope Village
Historic District.
In January of 2016, The Scituate Town Council approved a tax agreement with
PDG which among other things forgives the approximately $550,000 that is
owed by the Hope Mill complex to the Town of Scituate for unpaid property taxes
and $55,000 for expenses incurred by the Town to secure and repair the Hope
Mill buildings. This decision was reached after less than a minute of deliberation
without any discussion of the consequences that the Hope Mill project is likely to
have for Hope Village, for the Town of Scituate or for residents of Coventry who
will live near the project.
According to current Scituate zoning ordinances, the proposed Hope Mill development will be 160 acres short of the land area required by town zoning ordinances to build a 193 residential apartment complex. To get around this requirement, PDG is attempting to use permits, variances and approvals that were
granted to a previous but significantly different project involving the Hope Mill
that was given conditional approval in 2006. The Town of Scituate Town Council
and Plan Commission has been going along with this ruse. In actual fact, the
permits, variance and approvals granted in 2006 expired in 2008.
In 2006, a developer named Hope Mill Village Associates secured conditional
permits, variances and approvals to convert all ten of the existing Hope Mill
complex buildings into 155 luxury apartments ("Class A" full service apartments
with recreational facilities and service related facilities) and a museum of local
history. An additional 52 condominiums were to be located in approximately ten
small newly constructed period buildings to be built along the Pawtuxet River
front. To secure permits, variances and approvals for the project, Hope Mill Village Associates agreed to construct and donate to the Town of Scituate a $4 million sewer line which would also serve buildings in Hope Village owned by the
Town of Scituate. Hope Village Associates also agreed to donate 32 acres of land
to the Town of Scituate, to construct public walking trails along the Pawtuxet
River on their property, to build a public bridge across the Pawtuxet River, to
create a museum of local history and to construct a public stone staircase leading
into a public park in Hope Village abutting the Hope Mill. In 2008, Hope Mill

Village Associates went into receivership and then filed for bankruptcy. In 2008,
all of the permits and approvals granted to Hope Mill Associates expired. At that
point, no construction had started on the Hope Mill project and Hope Mill Village
Associates had incurred $85,000 in violations for unlawfully logging wetlands on
the Hope Mill site.
The manner in which the Scituate Zoning Board and Scituate Plan Commission
awarded permits, variances and approvals to Hope Mill Associates in 2006 was
grievously flawed, incompetent and totally biased in favor of Hope Mill Village
Associate, the developer. Scituates zoning ordinances, Comprehensive Plan and
the concerns of residents of Scituate were ignored. During 2006, Rhode Island
was in the midst of a historic mill restoration boom. The Scituate Zoning Board
and Scituate Plan Commission got caught up in the euphoria. They ignored public
concerns raised at public hearings on the Hope Mill project and gave the Hope
Mill developer everything he asked for. The Zoning Board's and Plan Commission's decisions were based solely on the developer's representations and promises and not on any independent evaluations by unbiased experts. Many of the
claims and assertions that the developers made in 2006 to Scituates Zoning
Board and Plan Commission were obviously inaccurate, self-serving and violated
Scituates zoning ordinances and Comprehensive Plan. Nonetheless, Scituates
Zoning Board and Plan Commission granted the developers requests for permits.
No assessment of the likely consequences of the project or the cost to Hope Village, the Towns of Scituate or the Town of Coventry was ever attempted by the
Scituate Zoning Board, Scituate Town Council or Scituate Plan Commission.
No attempt was made to assess the Town of Scituate's ability to absorb and assimilate a project of this scale. The Hope Mill is the largest building complex in
Scituate by a large margin. No attempt was made to assess the impact of the
project on life in Hope Village or the surrounding areas.The question of whether
a 200 unit condo/apartment complex belongs in Hope Village (which had roughly 150 housing units at the time) and what effect such a dense housing development would have on Hope Village's existing community (which is protected by
the historic district regulations concerning density) was ignored. Scituate's Comprehensive Plan was completely ignored. Scituate's Comprehensive Plan states
that the citizens of Scituate had considered the future of the Hope Mill complex
and had decided that the Hope Mill buildings should not be used for housing.
They want Hope Village to remain a village and not turn into a commuter suburb.

The Hope Mill project was granted a 160 acre dimensional variance without the
Zoning Board determining whether the project actually met conditions necessary
for such a large variance. The Plan Commission ignored questions of Scituate Police and Fire departments capacity to deal with such a large and dense housing
project, and they ignored traffic congestion problems likely to result from the
Hope Mill project despite concerns expressed by Hope Village residents. In the
end, only the financial interests and views of the developer were considered.
The permits, variances and approvals granted to Hope Mill Village Associates in
2006 expired in 2008, but the Scituate town government is unwilling to acknowledge this fact. They dont want the current Hope Mill project to undergo the
permitting process again because they know that the project violates Scituates
zoning ordinances and Comprehensive Plan. PDG is attempting to use these expired permits, variance and approvals as though they were still in force and the
Town of Scituate has been slavishly going along with the ruse.
In January of 2010, eight of the ten Hope Mill Buildings were sold to a second
developer, New England Development (NED). NED went into bankruptcy in August of 2010. The master plan submitted by PDG is similar to the master plan
proposed informally by NED in 2010. NEDs master plan concept was never
formally submitted to nor approved by the Scituate Plan Commission. NED master plan includes the construction and donation to the town of a $4 million sewer
line and appears to include other dedications to the Town of Scituate that had
been proposed by Hope Mill Associates in 2006. PDG's master Plan does not.
PDG has not offered any dedications to the Town of Scituate, no land, and no
sewer line. Such public dedications are required of all large developments.
PDGs project Master Plan must be treated as a new Master Plan application as
the law requires, and any application that PDG makes to the Scituate Zoning
Board must be treated as a new application, which is what it is. We believe that
the Scituate Plan Commission and Zoning Board will try to continue to skirt the
law and pretend that the permits, variance and approvals granted in 2006 are
still valid. We also want to compel the Scituate Zoning Board and Plan Commission to diligently adhere to existing zoning laws and the Town Comprehensive
Plan and stop acting as agents of developers as they have been acting since 2006.

The Hope Mill is the largest building in the Town of Scituate, Hope Village, Hope
and the surrounding neighborhoods in Coventry. The Hope Mill is the dominant
building in its area. What happens to the Hope Mill will have a profound effect on
Hope Village and all of its surrounding areas.

=======================================================
The cost to the Town of Scituate of the Hope Mill project:
1. PDG expects the Hope Mill project to house 445 residents with approximately
45 school aged students. No one knows how many school aged students will
live in the Hope Mill project if it is completed. There is no reliable way to estimate that number. About 15% of the population in Scituate, Providence County and Rhode Island are school aged students. Towns in Rhode Island with a
higher percentage of renters do not have a lower percentage of school age students. Expecting 15% of the residents in a project like the Hope Mill to be
school aged students is a reasonable estimate but it is just an educated guess.
PDG's estimate of 10% school aged students is also a guess. If two-thirds of the
two bedroom apartments housed a school aged child, the number of school
aged children in the complex could be 95 or more. It costs the Town of Scituate about $11,000/year to educate a student (net of state grants to the town to
fund education).
45 x $11,000 = $495,000.
95 x $11,000 = $1,045,000.
150 x $13,500. = $1,650,000.
However many school age students live in the Hope Mill project, the Town of
Scituate will have to foot the bill. If the project were to be built as proposed and
all of the apartments built are low-income housing, the project could house over a
hundred fifty school age students. Federal law requires owners of low income
housing to house the neediest applications first. "Neediest" could be interpreted
as families with children.
2. The Town of Scituate spends $3,500 per resident and receives $700 per resident in state aid and grants. The expected cost of town service on Hope Mill residents is:
($3,500 - $700) x 445 = $1,246,000
Property taxes generated by project
$350 per resident for low-income housing
$900 per resident for "workforce" housing
Expected deficit to Town of Scituate is $845,000/year to $1,100,000/year for

providing services to Hope Mill residents:

The deficit to Town of Scituate if all apartments are low-income housing:
445 residents x $350/resident = $155,750 property tax collected
$1,246,000 - $155,750 = ($1,090,250)
The deficit to Town of Scituate if all apartments are "workforce" housing:
445 residents x $900/resident = $400,500 property tax collected
$1,246,000 - $400,500 = ($845,500)
Owners of property in Scituate who do not live in the Hope Mill will be forced to
pay significantly higher property taxes to cover the cost of services that the Town
of Scituate will be obligated to provide residents of the Hope Mill project.
The demographic of the Hope Mill project:
3. The Hope Mill project would more than double the population of Hope without the Town of Scituate providing any additional investment in community infrastructure in Hope Village to accommodate the increased population. The current population of Hope is about 408 people (2.6 occupants per housing unit x
157 housing units). The expected Hope Mill project population is 445 residents.
The Hope Mill project would increase the total population of Hope Village at
build out to a population well beyond the number planned for in the town's Comprehensive Plan.
4. If the Hope Mill project is completed as proposed, more than half of population in Hope will be renters (transient residents). At the moment, the majority of
residents in Hope Village are owner/occupiers. That creates a very different dynamic in the community as renters have no long term stake in the community.
5. The income profile of community is likely to fall sharply. Among other things,
this has implications for property values. The Hope Mill project is likely to cement Hope Village's fate as a low-income community.

The Hope Mill project will create congestion problems:

6. There will be increased road congestion and congestion at public facilities/
parks in Hope Village. No public investment is planned by the Town of Scituate to
mitigate the increased congestion.
200 unit apartment complexes belong in cities. They do belong in small villages
in rural areas. Cities have the infrastructure and are organized to absorb such
large projects. They have master plans, planning departments and capital investment budgets which can accommodate such large projects. Hope Village and
the Town of Scituate have none of these capabilities nor access to capital for infrastructure improvement. The Town of Scituate does not employ a town planner
nor have a town planning department. None of the members of the Scituate Plan
Commission have any professional education in town planning or meaningful experience in town planning. They are incompetent and lazy. Hope Village lacks
the basic infrastructure needed to serve its existing population no less absorb a
doubling of its population.
Likely social effects of the Hope Mill project:
7. The increased congestion and the influx of a large transient population will be
damage to the social fabric ("camaraderie") of Hope Village. Renters who live in
the Hope Mill have limited ties to community and little stake in the community's
future. Their attitudes and behavior will reflect their their transitory position in
the community.
8. The Hope Mill project is not likely to be a pleasant or sociable place to live.
Large apartment complexes built with few amenities rarely are pleasant to live.
Half of the apartments in the proposed Hope Mill complex will have windows
that face into other apartments. The other half will have windows that face into a
parking lot. Public space within the project buildings will be the minimum that
HUD allows (12 square feet per apartment). Federal law sets minimum and maximum quality/size limits for low-income housing supported by federal tax credits.
Federal regulations do not allow developers to add amenities, upgrade apartments or undertake extensive landscaping.
In January of 2016, PDG submitted drawings for its proposed project to the Scituate Plan Commission. The mill restoration proposed by PDG will look like a factory of no particular distinction and no particular age surrounded by a sea of asphalt. Little of the architectural detail or elements that has been lost will be

restored. Historic restoration is an exercise in storytelling, often with building details added to existing buildings in the restoration process to better tell the story
of the buildings history. PDG's mill restoration proposed will tell no story. PDG
plans to add no architectural elements which might more clearly reveal the mill's
history or rebuild important structures that have been destroyed . The renovated
mill will have better windows and a more attractive roof but will otherwise look
much as it did fifty years ago which is neither attractive, inspiring or edifying.
Project defeats goals of historic preservation:
9. Hope Village is located in a special zoning district called the Hope Village
Overlay District. According to Scituate Town Ordinances and Comprehensive
Plan, the purpose of the Hope Village Overlay District is to direct development in
Hope Village to insure that the Hope Village's character and social fabric ("camaraderie") are maintained, that new development is compatible with the existing
scale and building fabric of Hope Village, that architectural quality and historical
character in the village is maintained and that mixed village building use, characteristic of traditional mill villages, continues in Hope Village.
10. The restoration of the Hope Mill proposed by PDG will come at a significant
cost to the social fabric and character of Hope Village and the surrounding areas.
PDG's development will effectively convert Hope Village from a traditional Rhode
Island village into a single use district (a commuter suburb). PDG's project is
largely a new construction housing project. More than fifty percent of the apartments built in the Hope Mill project will be in newly constructed buildings. The
project will be single use. When the Hope Mill functioned as a textile factory (its
historical use), mill workers lived in Hope Village. The village was a social environment. Everyone in the village knew each other. Village residents lived,
worked, worshiped, were educated and shopped in the village. Village residents
circulated through the village throughout their day and the the course of their
lives. There was a very strong sense of community and identity in the village. The
scale, density and single use nature of the Hope Mill project will destroy whatever
traditional social character and fabric is left in Hope Village. It will convert Hope
Village into an impersonal commuter community. Hope Village will transform
from a traditional village with a strong sense of community, frequent social interaction and diverse building uses into a suburban sprawl community. Suburban
commuter communities are the antithesis of traditional village life. They are
characterized by impersonal single purpose districts connected by automobile

travel between districts. They create few interactions within a neighborhood and
a depersonalized living environment. People live in one district, commute by car
to another district to shop, to work, and another to attend school.
11. Historically, villages in Scituate were self contained worlds. People lived their
whole lives in their villages, They worked shopped, lived, were educated, worshipped and died in the village. They were complete social environments. According to the Scituate Ordinances, the objective of the Town of Scituate is to both
preserve Hope Village's buildings and to preserve its social fabric, to preserve the
unique quality of life that the Hope Village has long enjoyed. The Hope Mill
project would destroy the cultural legacy and social fabric of Hope Village in order to allow a developer and his investors to earn fat profits.
The traditional sense of community that defined the lost Scituate villages is the
one aspect of Hope Village that is most worth preserving. That is what will be lost
if PDG is allowed to proceed. A village is a social structure, a form of social organization and a social experience. It is not an overbuilt collection of buildings of a
particular or vintage crammed to the rafters with new developments. Saving old
buildings in a manner that destroys fundamental underlying social structures,
organizations and experiences is a form of demolition not preservation.

The Hope Mill project will flatten Hope Village into a suburban sprawl. It will not
revitalize Hope Village:
12. Today, Hope Village is a sleepy former mill community, with potential for rebirth. Village residents appear to be waiting for an injection of capital and infrastructure to revive the village. Hope Village has suffered a long decline but appears to be showing some signs of stabilization.
Many of the houses in Hope Village are in good condition and several have been
lovingly restored. The overall impression of Hope Village is one of a village that
as a whole is less than the sum of its constituent parts. What is missing and deficient in Hope Village is the public infrastructure, public spaces and master plan
that ties the constituent parts of a community into a greater whole. This is the
glue that only the town government can provide and that Scituate Town government has failed to provide. This glue includes all sorts of things large and small
from a grid of regular sized secondary roads to walkable neighborhoods, to welldefined public spaces, to street trees to slow traffic and enhance the streetscape,

to a municipal sewerage system. These deficiencies are what has been preventing
Hope Village from springing back from its long decline. Hope Village suffers from
a lack of public investment that only the town government can provide.
13. The Hope Mill project proposed by PDG will not the answer Hope Villages
hopes of revitalization. Rather than revive Hope Village into a vibrant community, it would flatten Hope Village into a soulless characterless suburban sprawl.
The social fabric, which is the heart and soul of the community will be extinguished. The project will exacerbate the public infrastructure deficit that has been
holding Hope Village back and over tax what little public infrastructure and public amenities currently exist in Hope Village. Friendliness and sociability will be
replaced by impatience, irascibility and depersonalization.
14. The Hope Mill project is likely to lead to decline in the number of public spaces in Hope Village. For many years, residents of Hope Village, Hope and Coventry have accessed the Hope Mill Pond to fish and swim through property that will
be owned and developed by PDG. This open access has turned the land on the
west side of route 116 belonging to the Hope Mill property effectively into a public
park. It likely that the public will lose access to the Hope Mill Pond through the
Hope Mill property if the Hope Mill project proceeds.
15. Given the low amount of property taxes that the Hope Mill project will generate for the Town of Scituate, the Hope Mill project will not generate any money to
pay for much-needed infrastructure improvements in Hope Village. In fact, the
Hope Mill project is likely to consume over one millions dollars per year in Town
services above the property taxes that it will pay the Town.
16. The Hope Mill project is likely to pull down the quality of life in Hope Village
and all of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Integrity and competence of Scituate Town government is limited:
17. The Scituate Town Council, Zoning Board and Plan Commission have not
competently or honestly handled proposals to develop the Hope Mill in the past.
The have been obsessively concerned with the welfare and interests of the developers who have expressed interest in the property and ignored public interests.
This pattern is unlikely to change if the Scituate Town government's actions are
left unchallenged.