This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: mindfoggs2 Surnames: JOHNSON Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.rhodeisland.unknown/2094.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I'm not totally sure what you are looking for...information on Hillside Dairy or an obit for unknown Johnson or both. Hillside Dairy was in Western Cranston which would be Providence Co. Johnson is a fairly common surname so it would help if you had a given name or a time frame for possible death which I assume was in RI. SSDI for Johnson with death in RI yields 1416 returns...far too many to try and guess just who is the Johnson you're looking for. Projo is archived on line, accessible with a RI Library bar ode, from 1983 to present. I tried a search for Hillside Dairy thinking that it might yield a Johnson obit that mentioned the dairy. I got a couple articles about the development of the former dairy's land but nothing on a Johnson individual. The second article gives some road names within the development that was the dairy farm so with those you can see on Google Maps or one of the others just where the diary farm had been. I can try for Johnson again if I have a bit more to go on so I'm not getting 1000's of results - 65562 to be exact - to sift through: Western Cranston changes its face as expensive houses replace farmland RUSSELL GARLAND Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer. Providence Journal. Providence, R.I.: Dec 27, 1983. pg. C-01 CRANSTON --- To the west of Route 295, the tight urban neighborhoods that most people recall when they think of the city give way to rolling hills, farms and expensive houses on large lots. Western Cranston, as the section is known, once was the forgotten face of the city, a largely agricultural area with a few clustered homes. But the face of western Cranston is changing. Route 295 and development of other sections of the city have made the open spaces west of the highway attractive to middle-class professionals. Homes are rising on the former pastures of a dairy farm and an industrial area is growing near the Johnston line. IN THE early 1970s, city water was extended to part of western Cranston and that part was rezoned, allowing homes on half-acre lots instead of two acres. The recently completed citywide revaluation, the first since 1954, is expected to increase pressure on landowners to sell. "It will all be developed sooner or later," said Charles F. Meinel, owner of Pippin Orchard Nurseries in the far west section of Cranston, where a minimum of two acres still is required for house lots. "I don't intend to stay more than 10 or 15 years because of development pressure." Although it frequently pops up in conversation, western Cranston is not a historically defined section of the city like Knightsville or Edgewood. Generally, western Cranston is considered to be the 7,000 acres of the city west of Route 295, a four-lane superhighway built in the late 1960s and early '70s. At one time, western Cranston extended east to Route 5, but because of development during the 1960s that section more closely resembles the eastern part of the city, said Frederick J. Vincent, city planning director. THE DIFFERENCE between east and west Cranston is most clearly seen in an aerial photo of the city, which Vincent pulled out of a drawer in his City Hall office. The east has streets and homes crowded around Providence; the west is open, with widely spaced roads, fields and mostly scattered houses. It could be a valley in southern Vermont. "We're a typical suburb in one respect," Vincent said, "in another we're still rural." Western Cranston escaped development for several reasons, Vincent explained - water, new homes closer to Providence and roads. Soil in the area generally would not support both a well and septic field on less than two acres. Until the early 1970s, city water was not available, and sewers in western Cranston extend only to the 365-acre western Cranston industrial area. And during the 1950s and '60s, there was plenty of developable land in central Cranston. Those years saw the building of Garden City, Garden Hills, Woodridge and Glenwood. Vincent noted that until Routes 295 and 37 were constructed, access to Western Cranston was poor. IN THE 1970s, however, the city extended water mains to the so-called "development area" of western Cranston, 2,300 acres just west of Route 295. In 1977, the area was zoned for single-family residences on half-acre lots. The city would like to extend sewers to the development area if federal money becomes available. Between 1972 and 1983, Vincent said, 2,000 new house lots have been approved by the city, most of them in western Cranston. "Our plan is not to encourage urban sprawl in western Cranston," the planning director said. "We do that primarily through zoning and extension of utilities." The rezoning and city water are what Nicholas Cambio of Universal Properties said caused him to start developing subdivisions in western Cranston. The largest developer in western Cranston, Cambio has done four subdivisions in the area, including the 273-lot Hillside Farms begun in 1979 on the site of the now-defunct Hillside Dairy. Prices for developed lots of half an acre or more range from $19,900 to $35,000, Cambio said. Houses being constructed on them run from the mid-$60,000s to $200,000, he said. The development is two-thirds complete. PROXIMITY TO Route 295, Cambio said, is the "first and foremost" reason for the success of Hillside Farms. "It's close enough so it doesn't take 10 minutes to get to Route 95," said the developer, "yet it's far enough so you don't hear the traffic." "It's country-like but it's just minutes from Providence," Vincent said of western Cranston. "There are few places that have its potential both for industry and residences." Some western Cranston residents, like Meinel, are not pleased by this potential. He said farmers are being driven out by higher taxes and increased vandalism and theft associated with development. "I hate to see so much being developed," he said, "especially the good agricultural land that farmers have spent 200 years preparing and someone takes a bulldozer to it." According to a survey done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1979, nearly 1,300 acres in western Cranston were devoted to agriculture. More recent figures are unavailable, but during the 1984 growing season, the department plans to repeat the survey, which was part of a study of farmland in all of Rhode Island. A REPORT issued in January, 1979, by the Cranston League of Women Voters and Conservation Commission said that of the 56 owners of western Cranston farmland surveyed, most wanted to retain their land and continue farming. The city's primary weapon to discourage development of agricultural land in the far western section of Cranston, said Vincent, is the two-acre minimum lot size. "I think it has been effective," he said, adding that since the late 1960s, when the low-density zoning was enacted, there have been only two major subdivisions in that section of western Cranston. City zoning does not include provisions for agricultural zones. Revaluation will increase pressure on many large landowners who previously were paying taxes based on land values in 1954, when western Cranston was far down on the list of desirable addresses. Taxes on the 100-acre Pippin Orchard Nurseries property were $1,300 this year but will rise to approximately $7,500 next year, based on a tax rate of $30 per $1,000, the rate given as a "ballpark" figure by city officials. About a half-dozen western Cranston landowners are seeking tax relief under the state Farm, Forest and Open Space Act, said Cranston Assessor Carlo V. DelBonis. "It's not fair to the taxpayers in any part of the city to allow someone else an unfair advantage," DelBonis said. "If they're farmers, they can go on the Farm, Forest and Open Space Act; if they're land speculators, they'll have to pay their fair share." Cranston "Our plan is not to en courage urban sprawl in western Cranston. We do that primarily through zoning and ex tension of utilities." Frederick Vincent planning director -Journal-Bulletin Map by Donald J. Perriello -------------- Neighborhood of the week Country feel, suburban conveniences Former dairy farm is family-friendly development; [ALL Edition] AVIS GUNTHER-ROSENBERG Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer. Providence Journal - Bulletin. Providence, R.I.: Oct 5, 1997. pg. G.01 Hillside Farms was developed on the site of the former Hillside Dairy, which operated for half a century as one of the largest independent dairies in Rhode Island. Hillside Farms residents say the area still has a bit of a country feel, but with suburban conveniences. It's minutes from the highway and has access to Hope Highlands Elementary School. All in all, they say it's a great place to raise a family. You'd never know that Hillside Farms is also a neighborhood that has had its share of controversy. Developed beginning in 1979 by Universal Properties, which is owned by partners Nicholas and Vincent Cambio and Ronnie Malafronte, Hillside Farms was in the news a lot in the early '90s during the banking crisis. The controversy centered around $687,500 in loans from the now-defunct Central Credit Union to Nicholas Cambio for the development of 11 lots that the Department of Environmental Management had deemed so swampy that septic systems would be unlikely to work. Nicholas Cambio says the hoopla was created by the media who "took a picture of a lot after a 4- to 5-inch rainstorm. Absolutely, you'll have some water puddling in low-lying land after a rainstorm. You'll have that in a parking lot." Cambio, who says his company built between 400 and 500 houses in Hillside Farms between 1979 and 1987 (he's says it's one of the biggest subdivisions in the state), said he settled with DEPCO (Rhode Island Depositors Economic Protection Corporation) in July 1993, agreeing to "give them all the real estate that was collateral for the loans and $3 million." "And, at the end of the day, the lots got sold and somebody built houses on them. I ride through on occasion and the grass is green; cars are in the driveway; seems like a happy family to me." Russell Chateauneuf, chief of permitting for the DEM's office of water resources, says DEM never says a lot is "unbuildable." Even if a lot does not meet building requirements today, there are steps that can be taken to change that. "If the land has a high water table," Chateauneuf says, "you can install sub-drains around the perimeter of the lot and drain it into the street with the city's permission. It's not an inexpensive process, but one that is available. "Sometimes, by building a subdivision, putting in drains, they are able to lower the water table." Currently, five or six house lots on Thunder Trail have not yet received DEM's approval and are not built on. Cranston City Planner Kevin Flynn says the Thunder Trail lots are the only ones he knows about that have still failed to pass a perculator test - where holes are drilled into the ground to measure how quickly water penetrates the soil. He says there are several undeveloped lots scattered throughout the subdivision but they may be undeveloped for other reasons. For instance, a homeowner may have bought a neighboring lot for added privacy. Today, residents have nothing but positive things to say about the community, calling it a wonderful family place, a place of helpful neighbors, a good place to raise kids. Those that have heard of the problems say they have not been affected by them. Diana Beaudoin has lived in Hillside Farms since 1983. When her third child came along five years ago, she needed a larger home. She didn't look far, finding what she wanted a few streets away on Baneberry Drive, a house that Cambio built. "Before we moved in, I had a cement company come in and look at the foundation," Beaudoin says. They found a crack that they then repaired, but otherwise everything was fine. And nine-year resident Martha Ahern, of Eric Court, has never met anyone in the neighborhood who has had problems with septic systems backing up or water in the basement, although she has seen evidence of a high water table on some of the back streets - water-logged grass when it pours after it hasn't rained in a while. But if anyone's having major problems, she hasn't heard of them. Just the opposite. Everyone seems very happy with their homes. "People take care of their houses," she says. "There are a lot of families of all ages, young kids and teenagers. People that I know, I like. I have no complaints." Like Beaudoin, Tom Foley, owner of New England Pacific Mortgage, loves the neighborhood so much, he passed up a chance to move out. Foley first came to Hillside Farms in 1988, intending to stay only a few years, then move down to East Greenwich. His plans changed when his three daughters were born. When Foley moved in, most of his neighbors were newlyweds, but quickly the backyards began to fill with swingsets, and minivans replaced sports cars in the driveways. "The neighbors used to hang out on their decks on Friday and Saturday nights having parties," Foley remembers. "Now it's all T-ball and soccer. It's great if you're looking for an old-style neighborhood where kids can play and you don't have to be looking out the window all the time. Every house has two to four kids. It's like a playground. There are 13 kids in the five houses near us." It's not unusual, he says, to have 10 children playing in the yard one minute, then to find out they've all moved down the street to a neighbor's yard. It feels safe, he says, to let the children loose on the neighborhood, because everyone watches out for everyone else's kids. They watch out for the adults, too, banding together when a neighbor is in crisis. It happened to Beaudoin last year when her husband, Thomas, a salesman for Frito-Lay, died at age 38. Friends stepped forward to support her, and even those she had had only a pass-and-wave relationship with came to lend a hand. "They would come by to do the grass if it needed to be cut," she says. "They chipped in and helped pay for an alarm system when I was scared to be alone in the house. Another group set up a fundraiser in honor of my husband, setting up a trust fund for my kids' college education. "Every time I walk out of here it's 'do you need anything.' " The neighborly feeling has always been there, Beaudoin says. When her children, now 11, 7 1/2 and 6, were smaller, the phone would ring on Christmas day. "Santa left stuff here for your kids, too," neighbors would say. The neighborhood, bordered by Seminole and Tepee Trails to the north, Olney Arnold Road to the east, Pippin Orchard Road to the west and Furnace Hill Brook to the south, is minutes from Route 37 and two miles from Oaklawn Avenue. The proximity to shopping is one of the things that sold Debra Miraglia, a real estate agent with RE/MAX First Choice, in Cranston, on her Eric Court home, that and the half-acre lots that are "just enough to make me feel I'm not in the city." "My husband works in Marlboro, Mass.. (The neighborhood's location is) perfect, like living in the country, but it's 10 minutes to Providence, 45 minutes to Boston." And unlike pricier Western Cranston neighborhoods, Hillside Farms is affordable for young professionals, Miraglia says, with average sale prices in the past six months around $140,000. According to a search of the Multiple Listing Service, there are currently five houses on the market ranging in price from $142,500 for a 1,500-square-foot colonial on Hope Hill Terrace to $194,900 for a 2,166-square-foot colonial on Kimberly Lane. Four houses have sold within the past six months with an average stay on the market of 81 days. The least expensive was an 864-square-foot raised ranch on Robinlyn Drive that sold for $109,000. The most expensive was a 1,744-square-foot colonial on Kimberly Lane that sold for $169,500. Cranston real estate taxes are $31.74 per $1,000. There is a 30 percent reduction off the assessed value for owner-occupied dwellings. CAPTION: A TOUCH OF THE CITY: On Eric Court in the Hillside Farms neighborhood of Cranston, curbs neatly define the property fronts. CAPTION: A TOUCH OF THE COUNTRY: On Thunder Trail, a cape is nestled among large trees. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. 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