Village Renaissance
Burrillville, RI
U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee were on hand September 24th to help Burrillville town officials break ground on the new The library is part of a mixed-use redevelopment of the Stillwater Mill Complex in the center of Harrisville. When complete, the site will include mixed-income and elderly housing, ground level commercial and retail in addition to the library, helping to transform a blighted wasteland into a revitalized town center.
Read More in Projo.com
|
|
|
Sponsor Message
'Power of Place Summit'
Resource Column
Held May 12, 2006
See
who participated(use 'smart'
as the password)
Post Summit Survey
Following the Power of Place
Summit, we surveyed the nearly 500 participants -
planners, architects, state and local officials,
business leaders and citizens - asking what they
think about Land-Use 2025, what it offers their
communities as well as their priorities for
implementation. The results below reflect all
completed responses and represent approximately
20% of Summit attendees.
Complete Survey Results
Sample
Highlights
- Respondents identified a strategy of targeted
state investments to urban, town and village centers
as the single most important of nine strategies listed
for influencing smarter growth.
- What do you think are the most important ways
that RI's new Land-Use Plan can make a
difference in your
community?
- If you were designing a plan to promote the
smart growth concepts contained in Land Use 2025
in your community, what issues/messages would you
emphasize?
Workshop Session Notes
With the help of several volunteers
from the Statewide Planning Division, we have
assembled notes from each of the workshop
sessions held during The Power of Place Summit. In
some cases, there were two note-takers and
therefore two sets of notes.
Grow Smart Board of
Directors
Deming E. Sherman
Chairman of the Board
Susan Arnold
William Baldwin
Joseph Caffey
Robert L. Carothers
Arnold Chace
Jen Cookke
Trudy Coxe
Stephen J. Farrell
Thomas E. Freeman
J. Joseph Garrahy
John R. Gowell, Jr.
Michael S. Hudner
Stanley J. Kanter
Howard M. Kilguss
Dennis Langley
James Leach
Roger Mandle
Rev. James C. Miller
Thomas V. Moses
George Nee
B. Michael Rauh, Jr.
Michael F. Ryan
Gary Sasse
Richard Schartner
Merrill Sherman
Curt Spalding
James F. Twaddell
Ranne Warner
Sandra Whitehouse
Frederick C. Williamson
W. Edward Wood
Board Listing with
Affilliation
|
Become an e-Brief Sponsor
Display at your city or town hall, local library or place of business
Want to join an expanding network of smart growth practitioners? Click the map for details
Smart Growth
Grow Smart Staff
Scott Wolf Executive Director
Sheila Brush
Director of Programs
John Flaherty
Director of Research & Communications
Leslie Denomme
Executive Assistant for Finance
Dorothy Dauray
Office Assistant
Dee Dee Lozano
Training Coordinator
|
| |
Dear John,
You're among the 3,041 civic leaders,
state & local officials, development professionals,
journalists and visionary citizens getting the latest
news, happenings and trends in the smart growth
movement from Grow Smart
Rhode Island.
|
| |
| |
|
| State and local candidates to get briefing on growth & development issues, policies |
| |
Last call for municipal candidates to register for
breakfast seminar "Talking with Voters about
Managing Community Growth"
Voters in communities across Rhode Island share
similar concerns - escalating education
costs, residential property tax
increases, and ensuring the kind of residential
and commercial development that preserves
community character. Inevitably, the
discussion turns to the need for
managing growth in a way that strengthens our
economy and protects our environment.
To help candidates for local and state office address
these concerns, the Grow Smart Land-Use Training
Collaborative will be presenting 90-minute seminars
on October 4th and 11th. The seminars will feature
a panel of speakers with expertise in a broad range
of topics, including economic development, land
conservation, housing, community planning and
design, and property taxes.
October
4th session for local candidates
|
| |
|
| |
| Fall land-use workshop schedule set |
| |
Program geared to municipal decision-makers, citizen
planners and others responsible for shaping the
future of our communities
Conservation
Development
The Grow Smart Land-Use Training
Collaborative opens its 6th program year this fall with
a new 3-hour workshop about Conservation
Development being offered
October 25th (Kingston)
and
November 8th (Smithfield). Conservation
development is a creative land-use technique that
allows a community to guide growth to the most
appropriate area within a single parcel of land in
order to minimize negative impacts to the
environment and community character. It's also a
great way to promote open space protection at no
cost to the community.
Making Good Land-Use
Decisions
Responding to the needs most often expressed
by members of City and Town Councils, Planning and
Zoning Boards, this workshop series - being held October 5th, 12th and 19th and again on
November 21st, 29th and December 5th - is
designed to help members:
- Make legally defensible decisions
- Comply with open meetings, open records and
ethics laws
- Know what to ask to reduce environmental
impacts
- Make decisions based on comprehensive plan
goals
Click the above links for access to registration
forms.
|
| |
|
| |
| Statewide calendar launched for land-use, water-related events |
| |
"Community Connections"
consolidated
database will help organizers and participants stay
informed and avoid scheduling conflicts
The Grow Smart Rhode Island Land-Use Training
Collaborative, in partnership with the Narragansett
Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NBNERR),
has launched "Community Connections", a
public electronic bulletin board.
Featuring events throughout Rhode Island and
nearby Connecticut and Massachusetts, the calendar
will serve two purposes. First, it will become a
“one-stop-shop” resource for state and local
officials, citizens, watershed councils and land trusts,
as well as the design and development community
who want to find out about workshops, conferences
and other educational programs pertaining to land
use and water resources.
Secondly, since program sponsors are encouraged to
post preliminary information on the calendar as soon
as dates are set, "Community Connections"
will help a number of Rhode Island agencies and
organizations that plan land-use and water related
events to avoid schedule conflicts.
|
| |
|
| |
| New report looks at how smart growth encourages good economic development |
| |
The International Economic Development Council has
recently released "Economic Development and Smart
Growth" a report highlighting the connections
between smart growth and economic outcomes such
as job growth, occupancy rates, tax base, and
private investment.
The report, supported with funding from EPA, uses
detailed case studies to illustrate economic outcomes
in places that have incorporated smart growth
development strategies. The case studies profile
diverse projects in Lakewood, Colorado; Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania; Paducah, Kentucky; Indianapolis,
Indiana; Portland, Oregon; Burlington, Iowa; Silver
Spring, MD; and Columbus, Ohio. Download the PDF (50 pages).
|
| |
|
| |
| This Is Smart Growth showcases development at its best |
| |
Providence neighborhood group featured for
innovation in promoting healthy lifestyles
The Smart Growth Network (SGN) and the
International City/County Management Association
(ICMA) have released this publication illustrating
how communities can turn their visions, values, and
aspirations into reality, using smart growth
techniques to improve the quality of development.
"This Is Smart Growth" describes how, when
done well, development can help create more
economic opportunities, build great places where
people want to live and visit, preserve the qualities
people love about their communities, and protect
environmental resources. Many people want to know
what smart growth looks like; "This Is Smart
Growth" illustrates and explains smart growth
concepts and outcomes.
The publication features 40 places around the
country, from cities to suburbs to small towns to
rural communities, where good development has
improved residents' quality of life. Photos illustrate
how these communities have invested taxpayer
money wisely, offered people more choices in housing
and transportation, protected natural and working
lands, promoted healthy environments, created a
lasting legacy for the community, and achieved other
accomplishments.
September 2006. 32 pages. Download Here
|
| |
|
| |
| RI Economic Policy Council releases Community Development Scorecard |
| |
Highlights need to expand thinking from "land
development" to "place-making".
The Rhode Island Economic Policy Council periodically
publishes topical scorecards charting the State’s
overall economic performance and progress in key
areas, including business development, education,
quality of place, government, and science and
technology.
Recognizing that Rhode Island’s quality of place
is an important asset in today’s innovation driven
economy, this Community Development Scorecard
directly addresses the importance of developable
sites and whole places. “Whole Places” are: full of
life, diverse and distinctive in their built form, natural
environment and social networks; empowering of
their residents; transit and digitally connected, water
and energy efficient; and disaster resilient. Whole
places are important to innovation because they are
a magnet for creative talent. Among EPC's
recommended strategies is to steer future
development to our urban, town and village centers.
Featured in Providence Buisiness News on
Monday, 9/25. |
| |
|
| |
| Fall Mini-Grant deadline approaching |
| |
October 25th deadline to request assistance for
nonprofit historic preservation projects
The Preserve Rhode Island / Citizens Bank Foundation
Mini-Grant Program awards funding up to $1000 to
support non-profit groups that need assistance with
fees associated with preservation and planning
consultants, planning studies, project designs, and
the creation of preservation education projects.
Funds will not be awarded for the regular
maintenance of structures or other "bricks and
mortar" costs.
Interested applicants are encouraged to visit the
Mini-Grants page of the PRI
website to view the
guidelines for the program and to email or call a staff
person to discuss applications and their structure.
Grants are generally awarded within a month
following the deadline.
|
| |
|
| |
| CALENDAR Highlights |
| |
October 2006
International
Walk to
School Month gives children, parents, school
teachers and community leaders an opportunity to be
part of a global event as they celebrate the many
benefits of walking.
October 11-14, 2006
Planners
Training Service. Workshops from leading
planning researchers and practitioners including:
Effective Zoning Techniques; Urban Design and Site
Planning; The Transportation/Land Use Connection;
and Collaborative Growth Visioning. Presented by the
American Planning Association.
Providence, RI
October 19-21, 2006
PLACEMATTERS06 is the annual gathering of
the PLACEMATTERS community, where a
national network of practitioners come together to
learn, share, inspire and seed innovation in place,
collectively elevating the art and science of planning
for vibrant, sustainable communities.
Denver, CO
November 13-15, 2006 Brownfields 2006. National
brownfields conference cosponsored by EPA and
ICMA focusing on remediation, redesign and
redevelopment of potentially contaminated
properties. Conference registration is
free. Boston Convention & Exhibition
Center, Boston, MA
|
| |
|
| |
| 'Growth & Development' in the news |
| |
National
Statewide
Bristol
Burrillville
Coventry
Cranston
East Providence
Newport
North Kingstown
North Providence
North Smithfield
Pawtucket
Providence
Smithfield
South Kingstown
Tiverton
Warren
Warwick
Westerly
West Warwick
Woonsocket
|
| |
|
| |
|
