GARABEDIAN

CRANSTON — City Council President Aram G. Garabedian is making a last-ditch effort to scuttle a long-planned $1.9-million buyout of the Cullion Concrete Corp. property.

With the council poised to approve the purchase, designed to rid the city of a half-built concrete plant that has stoked fears of traffic, noise and pollution, Garabedian is pushing an alternative.

The council president is calling for a seizure of the Cullion property, using the power of eminent domain, in the hope that the city will wind up paying substantially less than $1.9 million for the 17.7-acre site on the banks of the Pawtuxet River.

But Garabedian, who will broach the idea at a council meeting Monday night, faces an uphill climb.

The council has already voted, 6-3, to endorse the broad outlines of the deal, with Garabedian, Jeffrey P. Barone and Maria Bucci dissenting.

And proponents of the buyout, including council member Emilio L. Navarro, who represents the area where the plant is situated, said they would oppose Garabedian’s gambit.

“I’m very, very concerned about him putting this resolution forward,” Navarro said.

Navarro and other supporters of the deal negotiated by Mayor Michael T. Napolitano said seizing the land, off Pontiac Avenue, would only throw the long-running fight over the concrete plant back into court.

The result, they argue: more legal fees, long delays and an uncertain outcome.

Cullion, which has a building permit for the plant, could wind up with even more than $1.9 million, critics argue.

But Garabedian, who has hired a lawyer with his own money to pursue the idea, dismisses those concerns.

Like other Cullion critics, he argues that the building permit the city issued the concrete company in March 2006, under the administration of former Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, was flawed in several respects.

And if a judge invalidated the permit during eminent-domain proceedings, Garabedian argued, Cullion’s claim on the value of the land would drop sharply.

With Cullion lacking authority to build and operate a plant, he said, the land would no longer be worth $1.9 million.

Napolitano, who has invested significant time and political capital in the buyout proposal, suggested that Garabedian’s plan ignores reality.

“Aram’s approach fails to take into consideration the circumstances that have already transpired,” he said.

Cullion, he noted, not only has a city building permit in hand, but permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The company, he added, also contends that it has already sunk $1.5 million into the site.

Those factors and others, he suggested, put Cullion in a strong position to win significant damages in any extended court battle over the fate of the plant.

The mayor had planned to ask for final council approval of his $1.9-million agreement Monday night.

But Ernest J. Carlucci, director of administration for Napolitano, said the mayor held back because the council wants to see a detailed accounting of the financing of the plan.

Napolitano has cobbled together a package that includes state grants, state loans, local open-space bond funds and some $700,000 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD officials told The Providence Journal this week that they had not yet approved the use of the agency’s grant funds for the project.

But administration officials, who say they have won informal assurances that they can use the funds for the Cullion deal, remain confident that the money will materialize.

If the council ultimately approves the buyout, the city would get the acreage and Cullion would remove its plant.

City officials say they plan to turn the lot into a recreation area, complete with walking trails and canoe launches.

They are also preparing for a small amount of affordable housing intended for entry-level teachers, city laborers and other municipal employees who might otherwise have trouble buying in Cranston.

dscharfe@projo.com