Newport Zoning Board paves way for gas station expansion on Bishop's 4th Street Diner lot
NEWPORT — Colbea Enterprises has been given the green light from the Zoning Board of Review for its demolition permit to make way for its new gas station.
“They say change is good,” board member Susan Perkins said during Monday's meeting. “I think it will be a very great addition to that area and to Newport.”
The Zoning Board unanimously voted to grant the special-use permit allowing the company to construct its new Seasons Market convenience store, expanded gas station and car wash. Colbea Enterprises currently owns the Shell gas station and car wash on the southwest edge of the rotary connecting Admiral Kalfus Road and JT Connell Highway.
The application has been met with criticism from Newport residents since it was filed in November 2021 because of the original plans to demolish Bishop’s 4th Street Diner, which leases use of the land from Colbea Enterprises.
While the Planning Board previously had approved the special-use permit to demolish the gas station and car wash on the property, it rejected the demolition permit for the diner on the grounds the company cannot demolish a building it does not own.
More:A date has been set for Bishop's 4th Street Diner's final day of operation
Colbea later filed to evict the diner from the property and received a District Court ruling that allowed the diner to remain on the land until Sept. 1. Diner owners Steve and Vicki Bishop since have put the aluminum diner building up for sale, but not the business rights, in case they find a new location.
Colbea Enterprises owner and CEO Andy Delli Carpini told the Zoning Board the company wants to make traffic circulation at the station more efficient and modernize the attached convenience store into a Seasons Market as it had six years ago on Thames Street.
“This site, we thought would be developed prior to Thames, but we later realized the way it was positioned and how (the Rhode Island Department of Transportation) was redeveloping the roads, it had been on hold for a while,” Carpini said.
More:'There is nostalgia to it': Bishop's 4th Street Diner regulars don't want to see it go
Since Colbea’s attempts to remove the diner from the property were met with some backlash online from Newport residents and diner patrons, Zoning Board member Bart Grimes said he was surprised to see a lack of objectors at the hearing Monday.
He and the rest of the board approved the permit, saying the application is ultimately an improvement of the existing use.
More:Bishop's 4th Street Diner ordered to leave in January. Here's the plan for the property.
“It’s already a gas station down there, and now they plan to create a safer, more efficient gas station,” Grimes said. “They’re modernizing this place, they’re making it a better place and safety was paramount in some of the decisions and planning. So for all those reasons and more I fully endorse this application.”
The Zoning Board granted the permit with a few conditions: the applicant has to start and substantially complete the project within five months of the decision, explore on-site renewable energy and provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure.