Downtown Warwick needs new retail zoning

To the editor: Two events in recent weeks in Warwick call on the village administrators to take a serious look at the zoning problems which impede the success of small businesses in downtown Warwick. One such problem is the shrinking of downtown retail spaces. The incredible outpouring of sorrow for the loss of the town’s bookstore indicated how much people care for the success of town’s business centers and the successful celebration of the “Lady’s Night Out” showed that people are willing to give their material support for such ideals. The Bookstore’s closing was, again, another reminder of how fragile our beautiful downtown is. Numerous letters in the meantime with great many suggestions reminded every one that a prosperous and beautiful downtown is really a work in progress and its success lies in the hands of a caring and deliberate community and its administrators. All this should put a heavy burden on our mayor and our village administrators. That they should take the fragility of our town and so much caring of our residents into heart and come up with a real retail zoning plan for the downtown area. Due to the lack of such plan many of our precious first floor retail spaces in town are being converted into office spaces; banks, real estate and land development companies with better means to pay higher rents are quickly converting prime retail spaces into offices. But prosperous downtowns need sufficient retail, eatery and entertainment destinations to offer a large pool of varied stores to entice the public for repeated stops. I encourage our village zoning planers to revisit the zoning plan of the village in urgent. It seems reasonable to expect that all first floors on Main Street and adjacent walking areas such as parts of West Street and Oakland should be dedicated to eateries and retail spaces. There are certainly many second floor and side street commercial spaces available in town that can house other vital office-based businesses such as doctors, accountants, attorneys, banks and real estate brokers. Behrooz Ghorbanian Warwick