City Council Workshop on Fort Adams Concerts Scheduled

The issue of whether Fort Adams State Park is an appropriate venue for summer concerts and other events has been relatively controversial for Newport.

Newport Waterfront Events, which used to organize the Newport Summer Concert Series, the Newport Comedy Series and other events at the now-closed Newport Yachting Center, has proposed using Fort Adams as a potential location to host such events.

The idea has garnered support from many local businesses and residents, but a group of Newporters, including members of the Castle Hill Neighborhood Association, are opposed to the expansion of summer events at Fort Adams, citing noise, pollution, parking and traffic concerns.

On Jan. 21, the Newport City Council will host a workshop to discuss the matter.

The meeting will be held in the Newport Public Library’s program room at 6:30 p.m.

The library is located at 300 Spring Street.

The meeting was requested by Newport Waterfront Events in December.

Michele Maker Palmieri, executive director, said that Newport Waterfront Events, formerly the event division of the Newport Yachting Center, has been in a “discussion and discovery phase” for several potential locations including a recent proposal to the Fort Adams Trust for operating inside the Fort walls.

Newport Waterfront Events has also been in talks with the state Department of Environmental Management for use of the West Lawn and “several other RIDEM properties across the state.”

The trust has been in contact with the mayor and City Council members and has suggested the workshop, which Palmieri said she agrees is the best course of action.

Neighbors have argued that the events would overwhelm the neighborhood.

“Our opinions are likely echoed by all neighborhood groups who would oppose a large commercial enterprise moving from a business district into a residential neighborhood,” wrote Rick Farrick in a Dec. 1 letter to the City Council.

“We are afraid that what is happening here is a little more than a transfer of the problems caused by concert at the downtown Newport Yachting Center into the middle of our residential neighborhood,” Ferrick said.

The Newport Yachting Center, which was sold by Newport Harbor Corporation to Rumford-based Peregrine Group in September, received a string of noise violations from the police department over the summer. The center ultimately pleaded no contest and paid fines to resolve the matter, which is right about when the sale was announced.

After the announcement that the Newport Yachting Center would close and the site would simply become a parking lot, many bemoaned the potential loss of a major draw for the City by the Sea every summer. The concert and comedy shows drew big names -- and big crowds.

But is Fort Adams the right place to absorb what was a major commercial enterprise? Though the Newport Folk Festival, for example, brings large crowds to the park every year, it is just a once-a-year-event.

“We feel that our neighborhood, and especially Fort Adams should not be turned into a commercial summer entertainment center,” Ferrick said.

Prominent Rhode Island Lawyer Brian Cunha on Nov. 19 wrote the City Council and recommended a maximum of five additional events with a maximum attendance of 2,500, limited to daytime concerts for a one year period.

“That initial expansion of events will allow the City Council and the RIDEM to evaluate the impact on the area,” Cunha said.