Johnson’s Pond Redevelopment Sept. 25: Capacity, Boundary Ideas

COVENTRY, RI — The Coventry Redevelopment Agency hosted the Johnson’s Pond Redevelopment Area and Public Use Determination Community Workshop Thursday at Coventry High, 40 Reservoir Road, taking comments from residents on their ideas for the future management of and public benefit use of the property.

The meeting was an information-gathering workshop for the town officials, aiding them in planning a redevelopment plan for the Johnson’s Pond parcel, legally seized, or “taken” by the town through eminent domain in 2024. WarwickPost.com’s preview of the meeting, “Coventry: Johnson’s Pond Meeting Pushed Till Sept. 25” posted Sept. 9, summarizes the taking and the current lawsuit filed by the prior owner, Soscia Holdings LLC, challenging the seizure. That lawsuit, which will determine whether the town’s taking of  the pond, and thus the redevelopment plan itself, survives, is the subject of a dispute among Coventry Town Council members and Solicitor Stephen Angell on council members’ access to unredacted invoices. Angell argues that restricting full invoice access to the Town Council President while the lawsuit is active, is necessary to ensure the town wins that lawsuit.

Coventry: Johnson’s Pond Meeting Pushed Till Sept. 25

In the meantime, the town is working with abutters of the parcel to define the boundaries of the Johnson’s Pond property so they can begin planning to use it.

“Bear in mind, we’ve got to get past this one fundamental step, that we get the map boundary right,”  said said Kevin Williams, a planner handling Land Use and Environmental Planning for GZA Environmental consultants hired by the town to assess the Johnson’s Pond property and abutters’ property, rights of way, and existing public access, to determine what the town is working with.

Additionally, “The idea is, tonight’s pretty simple. Make sure we didn’t forget anything in the draft area,” Williams said, “This is a process by which residents can improve the quality of their life and really, ensure stability and responsibility, for maintenance of this critical asset to the community, and promote orderly growth and development consistent with community need and consider the natural characteristics of the land, and the need to protect the public health and the environment.”

The plan will determine how best to:

• Enhance access and amenities
• Provide for long-term maintenance and improvements of infrastructure to support public recreational use of Johnson’s Pond
• Foster the ecological stability of the reservoir environment
• Promote economic development in appropriate areas
• Ensure stable reservoir conditions that support a high-quality waterfront environment for residential homes abutting the reservoir
• The redevelopment plan must create a public benefit for town residents by identifying potential redevelopment projects and strategies for public recreation and use of the pond.

“I do want to stress here, you may be thinking this is some crazy vision, we’re going to have a huge campground for the public. This can be small, modest improvements. Pedestrian safety, water safety, making sure the ecology is clear. The public benefit could also include enhancing the Zeke’s bridge boat launch area. We’re here to listen to you from big to small concepts and to arrange a plan around that but there’s nothing predetermined and comments are open to all about what they’d like to see in the future.”

Williams said GZA will post questions submitted and answers to those questions within about two weeks, to the Johnsons Pond project website. Their goal is to finish the plan by January 2026.

 

Sarah Sklar, project manager for the plan with GZA, joined Williams in splitting the audience into workshop breakout groups. Williams stayed to lead the main workshop group in the Coventry High School Auditorium.

Mark Lemoi, President of the Johnson’s Pond Civic Association, noted the danger of allowing the pond’s management to atrophy.

“I think everybody who lives on the pond had an enjoyable summer,” he said. “Over the last four to five years, it’s been, ah, a different way of life. And you ask, personally what we love about the pond, it’s what everybody’s saying. It’s a sense of community. Your neighbors. It’s bringing your children up here. The recreational opportunities and recreational aspects of just enjoying it. Quality of life. And we just lost that. You know, maybe we took it for granted before, four years ago. But we certainly know what could happen now,” Lemoi said, referencing the town’s struggles with Soscia Holdings LLC and its management of the pond prior to the eminent domain taking.

Lemoi said members of the association are concerned and want to be part of the redevelopment of the pond. He said that while he and other members have the most to gain from the development plan, they also have the most to lose.

“We need to protect our property values and our way of life,” Lemoi said.

Johnson’s Pond redevelopment: Define, Limit Access

One attendee recommended that the process needs to start with a definition of public access, which Williamson agreed with, noting that existing public access points to the pond, including the Zeke’s Bridge boat ramp, may be expanded and that doing that would require taking the recreational capacity of the pond into account.

Many attendees suggested that access to town residents be prioritized, perhaps with a registration sticker system.

Steve Riley noted there has been no assessment of the recreational capacity the pond can support. “GZA hasn’t gone to the pond and actually established, I think you call it vessel loading, but recreational carrying capacity,” Riley said. He added that the state doesn’t have an official formula for determining that either, though such formulas have been established in other states.

Williams said a standard could be set for capacity of the pond based on navigational surveys. “The cost to do that type of survey is very high,” he said, likely outstripping the cost of GZA’s scope of work, which is focused on a basic plan. He did say that any permit system should be based on such a survey.

One resident of the pond said that whatever is determined as the manageable public access will necessarily need to be subtracted from the current use of the pond, because it’s already at the maximum.

Jim Thompson, also a pond resident, agreed. “I think that anybody that’s been on the pond on a Sunday afternoon agrees the pond can’t sustain an influx of a lot of new boats coming in. If we’re going to have access, then I think the access should be limited to Coventry residents only. And a lot of the boat ramps around the state, they limit the size of the motor that can be bought on. You know, 10 horsepower and under and no personal watercraft.

Personal watercraft are one of the biggest problems that Johnson’s Pond has. You’ve got a lot of people who’ll just let anybody jump on it. They haven’t taken the course, you have 12-year-old kids out there, doing 60 miles an hour, and this pond’s got  a lot of natural choke points.”

He said if access isn’t restricted, then the town will need to pay a lot to have police monitor the area.

Johnson’s Pond redevelopment: Add watershed to boundaries

Luke Murray, who lives off Hill Farm Road, said his breakout group was concerned about the borders of the town-managed property ending at the roads. He said their concern was that the recent shutdowns of the pond due to blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) could be prevented by expanding the area of the town managed land around the pond, the water quality could be improved.

“It’s coming from somewhere. So one of the suggestions was, open up that boundary to  include the watershed, all of the drainage that goes into the pond. So that when we’re looking at the public benefit, that’s part of the public benefit, keeping that water clean,” Murray said.

A representative from another breakout group suggested that public access also be divided into boating and beach access, so that one doesn’t interfere with the other.

CRA Vice Chairman, Chris Schuler thanked the public for attending and sharing their concerns and ideas.

“I want to say thank you  to all of you for coming out here tonight,” Schuler said, “Because this means a lot to all of us. We live in this town, whether we’re on one end or the other, we live here and we care about this town.”

The next phase of the plan will be the drafting of the redevelopment plan, followed by the second public hearing presenting the plan, likely in November.