Grow Smart to present proposal for investing in economic revitalization at Thursday conference of city and town leaders

Innovative approach would help cash-strapped municipalities advance economic growth

January 23, 2012 – Providence, RI – Emphasizing the statewide economic importance of vibrant and healthy downtowns and Main Street districts with diverse and profitable small businesses, Grow Smart Rhode Island will present the details of an economic development incentive proposal to city and town officials at the Annual Convention of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns on Thursday, January 26th.

Grow Smart is an alliance of business and civic leaders, urban revitalization and environmental advocates, developers, builders, farmers, investors and active citizens. It advocates for policies and programs that support the revitalization of Rhode Island’s Main Streets and town centers, enhancing them as attractive places to live, shop and play and for small business to invest, grow and innovate.

The proposal would create a sustainable and accountable way for cities and towns to invest in their Main Street districts, creating conditions that attract private investment, job creation and that return underperforming properties to tax rolls, thereby strengthening municipal budgets. “Rhode Island cannot afford a further erosion of municipal fiscal health”, said Scott Wolf, Grow Smart Rhode Island Executive Director. “As our cities and Main Streets go, so goes our state”, he said. “Innovation isn’t just for businesses – now more than ever our cities and towns need innovative tools to position themselves for economic resilience in a changing economy”.

The proposal aims to amend the state-mandated property tax levy cap law and allow municipalities to first capture a portion of tax growth within targeted “Main Street districts” solely for the purpose of reinvesting in economic development, streetscape improvements and other public infrastructure repairs and upgrades within those districts. “This would provide an important tool for cities and towns to leverage their assets and invest limited resources where they can provide the greatest return”, said Wolf.

Wolf pointed to Rhode Island’s State Guide Plan, a long-term blueprint for the state, saying it has been providing guidance and a process for cities and towns to map and designate these “growth center” districts in a consistent way. “Many of our cities and towns have already developed well thought out plans for community and economic revitalization, but they often lack the fiscal capacity to implement them.

Wolf will then moderate a panel of civic and business leaders to discuss the proposal, including State Representative Jeremiah O’Grady (Lincoln/Pawtucket), Tom Kravitz, Director of Planning and Economic Development for the Town of Burrillville, and Samuel Bradner, Partner, The Peregrine Group, LLC.

The panel discussion will take place in the Narragansett Room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 2:30 p.m.-3:45 p.m.

Grow Smart RI Board backs airport runway extension

Asks Warwick City Council to drop its appeal of FAA approval

T.F. Green Airport terminal. Photo from T.F. Green Facebook page.

December 20, 2011 – Providence, RI – At its December 15, 2011 meeting, the Board of Directors of Grow Smart Rhode Island endorsed the latest proposal to extend the T.F. Green Airport runway by 1,530 feet to a total length of 8,700 feet. The proposal earned the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier this fall. “We believe that an expeditious implementation of this proposal will advance several of Grow Smart’s specific goals and values, as well as our overriding priority for sustainable economic growth linked with Rhode Island’s exceptional quality of place”, said its Board Chairman, Howard Kilguss.

Grow Smart is an alliance of business and civic leaders, urban revitalization and environmental advocates, developers, builders, farmers, investors and active citizens. It advocates for policies and programs that support the revitalization of Rhode Island’s Main Streets and town centers, making them more attractive places to live, learn and recreate and for businesses to invest, grow and innovate.

Beyond promoting smart economic growth in Rhode Island’s already developed areas, the group believes this proposal will advance the State’s efforts to expand healthy and affordable transportation options in several ways. “Not only would the extension allow more local residents to pursue relatively hassle free travel to the West Coast, but it would also leverage investments that our state has made in the major intermodal facility at Green Airport”, Grow Smart Executive Director Scott Wolf said, adding “In so doing, it would make it more economically feasible for the MBTA to continue expanding the frequency of its service in and out of Green to Providence, Boston and Wickford Junction”.

Grow Smart believes that because Green is a major transportation hub, mass transit improvements there are a catalyst for a stronger statewide transit system. The organization also contends that improving access to Green Airport – both by air and rail – will contribute to the success of the planned Warwick Station Redevelopment District, creating the type of vibrant, pedestrian and transit friendly mixed use center that will enhance the bottom line for the City of Warwick and the quality of life for its residents.

After more than a decade of debate, Grow Smart has concluded that the runway extension plan approved by the FAA should be an economic development and transportation priority for the state of Rhode Island. “That’s why we request that theWarwick City Council reconsider its decision to appeal the FAA’s approval, an appeal that could reportedly delay Green Airport expansion plans by as much as 3 years”, noted Wolf.

He continued, “To reach its full potential for a high quality of life and broad, sustainable economic opportunity, Rhode Island needs to take intelligent but bold steps to capitalize on its assets and invest in development where solid infrastructure for such development already exists. The proposed Green Airport Runway extension fits well into this strategic framework and presents a major opportunity for our state to move forward. That’s why we at Grow Smart Rhode Island will push vigorously for this proposal to become a reality as soon as possible.”

An empty box in North Kingstown

Lowe's at Quonset Point Gateway, image from Google Street View.

Earlier this week the Lowe’s at the Gateway at Quonset Point in North Kingstown closed, leaving 105 employees without jobs and an empty big box and parking lot.

The Lowe’s, which opened in early 2009 was among 20 “underperforming” stores nationwide which the retailer closed this year. While the store’s opening was celebrated as a sign of the success of the Gateway Center, GrowSmartRI expressed concern about the development in 2007.

GrowSmartRI submitted testimony to the Rhode Island State Planning Council on September 20, 2007 regarding the Revised Site Plan (August 6, 2007) for the Quonset Gateway Center Project.

Grow Smart continues to have serious concerns about this broad expanse of single-story retail. First, it is a low-density form of development that does not use land efficiently. And, as Grow Smart stated in its original testimony, “…this relatively low intensity use constitutes a basic inconsistency with the fundamental premise of Land Use 2025 (.pdf) which is that we should seek to accommodate the majority of our future growth by making efficient use of the infrastructured land within the urban services boundary.”

Second, the single-story retail and surrounding parking results in a great deal of impermeable surface on parcels 1 and 5b. The QDC development guidelines (Section 6.7.1.3) require that not more than 80% of a parcel be covered by impermeable surface. Grow Smart questions whether those two parcels, as shown on the revised master plan, meet the impermeable surface limit established in the QDC’s own guidelines

Third, large national chains, with their ability to cut prices, often drive smaller local businesses out of operation and pull revenue out of the local economy.

Gateway Center also has not yet moved forward with the proposed office component of the development, the component that would make the development actually be mixed-use. The employees of the offices on site would provide a needed customer base for the retailers. Smaller scale retail, catering to office employees, workers from other sections of Quonset Point, and residents from the nearby area would be more readily able to be repurposed when inevitable retail turn over occurs.

By continuing with an auto-oriented development style, reliant on big box floor plates, Gateway Center is now stuck with an empty box and empty parking lot that will be difficult to redevelop. If Lowe’s found the location to be “underperforming” chances are its competitors, such as Home Depot, will find it similarly underperforming.

While the town of North Kingstown works towards targeting growth into village style growth centers along the Post Road corridor (.pdf), Quonset could learn from the demise of 2-year-old big box retailer and shift the focus of development at Gateway Center to better align itself with the town’s vision and avoid future empty boxes.

Grow Smart Rhode Island’s Scott Wolf invited to meet with President Obama

Photo (cc) Mark Skrobola

Jobs bill, infrastructure investments on agenda

October 31, 2011 – Grow Smart Executive Director Scott Wolf will be meeting with President Barack Obama and White House staff tomorrow, November 1st. Wolf will be at the White House as part of a small delegation from Transportation for America, a national alliance of advocates and civic leaders promoting targeted investments in road and bridge repair and enhanced public transit. The President’s proposed Jobs Bill includes a number of such investments.

This meeting follows Grow Smart’s involvement in promoting these targeted investments alongside Rhode Island Senators Reed and Whitehouse at a September 28th media event drawing attention to the state’s infrastructure needs.

The President’s plan includes $60 billion in immediate investments in infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and modernization of mass transit, and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. The bill would also create a $7 billion infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital to fund a broad range of transportation projects.

For Rhode Island this would mean investments of at least $162.4 million in road and bridge repair and transit modernization that could support a minimum of 2,100 local jobs.

According to a 2008 report [.pdf], Rhode Island has a backlog of needed road and bridge projects that would require a $3 billion investment over ten years to bring existing infrastructure into a state of good repair. And in partnership with civic leaders and community stakeholders, RIPTA has prepared a vision [.pdf] for vastly improving mass transit by investing approximately $46 million over a five year-period.

“As the smallest and 2nd most urbanized state in America, Rhode Island has the potential for a truly first class mass transit system that can save residents money on household transportation costs, which represent the second highest family cost after housing,” said Wolf. “We simply can’t have a first class economy with second rate infrastructure. Without making these essential investments we will continue to compromise our state’s user friendliness and economic development marketability,” he said.

The World Economic Forum reports that the U.S.’s infrastructure ranking has slipped from 6th best in the world to 16th in just the last three years. The U.S. invests about 2% of GDP in transportation, while Europe invests 5% and China invests 9%.

Stay tuned for a follow-up report of Scott’s meeting with the President.

2011 General Assembly and RI’s Future

Austerity trumps prosperity agenda in 2011 General Assembly
	Rhode Island lawmakers adjourned for the year at 1:15 AM on Friday, July 1, 2011. The following are highlights of bills that impact community & economic development and quality of place in Rhode Island. In this just completed session of the General Assembly, legislators worked diligently to pass a budget that avoids significant tax increases and achieves a high level of fiscal austerity.But the question that all Rhode Islanders need to ask now is whether austerity alone is enough to turn our State around? We at Grow Smart maintain that a creative long range prosperity agenda is also needed for Rhode Island to overcome its economic sluggishness and come closer to reaching its full potential.That’s why we pursued initiatives in this Assembly session to restore a more targeted State Historic Tax Credit, to begin increasing comprehensive transportation investments through modest increases in user fees and to provide new incentives for municipal officials to encourage economic development in our urban, town and village centers. Unfortunately, none of these measures passed, although we appreciate the fact that hearings were held on all of them and that legislators such as Representative Jay O’Grady championed each one. There also was important coalition building accomplished on behalf of each of these measures, a development that bodes well for their chances of passage either later this year or next year.Fortunately some other important bills we backed did get Assembly approval including a proposal to reform and update the local comprehensive planning system, and a measure to give communities more flexibility to create special zoning districts that encourage mixed use development and additional investment in our urban, town and village centers.  More

Economic Growth & Revitalization
	Historic Tax Credit (H-6098) The House Finance Committee conducted a hearing on June 7, 2011 on this bill to restore a more targeted version of the State Historic Tax Credit program. After the hearing the Committee held the bill for further study. Key elements of organized labor expressed concerns about the bill at the hearing but later got behind it when proponents, including Grow Smart RI, agreed to an amendment requiring larger projects (those with “hard” construction costs of at least $ 6 million) to pay at least 80% of prevailing wages and fringe benefits to all project subcontractors. We hope that a bill with this new language and expanded coalition can pass the Assembly either later this year or early next year. [Failed]   Amendment of Zoning Enabling Act (H-5553 / S-306) This act expands the definition of “Overlay Districts” to allow standards and requirements for Overlay Districts to be either more restrictive or less restrictive than underlying zoning. The ability to create an overlay district with less restrictive standards provides another effective planning tool for communities, especially in efforts to advance revitalized and mixed-use urban, town and village centers. [Passed]   Local Economic Development Incentive proposal (H-5496) This act would have provided an incentive (and a means) for municipalities to encourage growth in urban and town centers by amending the property tax levy cap. The bill was heard by the House Finance Committee on 3/9 and had the support of the City of Pawtucket and the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. [Failed]   Amend Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act (H-5380 / S-0021) This act revises the Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act, incorporating a number of changes that make the planning process more workable for communities. The act extends the minimum time between required plan updates from 5 to 10 years, provides for a preliminary review of draft plans by the Division of Planning prior to the municipality’s initial public hearing on the plan, and provides that municipal appeals of the Division of Planning’s decisions concerning a comprehensive plan will be heard by a Hearing Officer. It also clarifies that after adoption of a comprehensive plan amendment that requires a zoning ordinance amendment, the zoning ordinance in effect at the time the update is adopted will remain in effect until the ordinance is amended, and it provides that a community may establish a 12-month moratorium to provide interim protection for a planned future land use. The act also includes language that reflects current planning priorities in Rhode Island. For example, the description of the circulation and transportation section makes specific reference to transit and bikeways, the description of the economic development section makes specific reference to agriculture, and comp plans must now include a discussion of natural hazards such as sea level rise, flooding and drought. [Passed]

Transportation Investment, Debt Reduction
	Transportation Investment & Debt Reduction Act (H-5789 / S-148) A bill sponsored in both chambers of the legislature this year and supported by the Coalition for Transportation Choices provided an opportunity for Rhode Island to take bold but economically sound steps to help reduce reliance upon a shrinking and increasingly unpredictable revenue source – the flat per gallon gas tax. Some elements of this bill, such as establishing a new Transportation Trust Fund to help reduce state borrowing and bonding through pay-as-you-go revenue sources, were incorporated into the state budget, with language taken directly from the proposed Transportation Investment and Debt Reduction Act. But legislators left out several other key elements of the bill, including a provision allocating a portion of Trust Fund receipts to mass transit. Through this omission the enacted budget fails to fully recognize that transportation is more than just cars, roads and bridges. Mass transit is a much more vital part of Rhode Island’s economy than many people think. Seventy percent of riders take RIPTA to work, so forcing RIPTA to make deep service cuts is a false economy and will become yet another barrier between people and jobs – particularly for those working second shift. Another element left out of the budget was an allocation of new revenues to cities and towns for fixing local roads. Instead of balancing new transportation investments from increased license and registration fees, the budget measure that passed will provide funds solely to the Department of Transportation. [Failed]     An Act Related to Motor Fuel Tax (H-5157) Through its leadership role in the CTC, Grow Smart opposed this legislation to reduce the Motor Fuel Tax by 5¢ per gallon. Declining gas tax receipts are already producing less and less revenue to sustain roads, bridges and transit. This would have been a move in the wrong direction for Rhode Island. [Failed]     Resolution Regarding Incentives to Increase Bus Ridership and Reduce Single Occupancy Commuting by State Employees (H-6258) To finish the work of the 2008 General Assembly (H-7377), this Resolution requests that the Department of Administration complete its report and recommendations regarding incentives to encourage more state employees to use alternate means of commuting to work, including an incentive for using mass transit. [Passed]

Housing Options and Affordability
	Fully fund the Neighborhood Opportunities Program (NOP) (H-5913 / S-571) The General Assembly accepted Governor Chafee’s budget recommendation not to provide any state funding for NOP but to require that the quasi-public state housing finance agency, Rhode Island Housing, take $ 1.5 million from its own resources for NOP program funding. NOP is the only long term state funded program for affordable housing other than the nearly depleted proceeds from the 2006 State Housing Bond. NOP is especially important in hard economic times because it concentrates on those Rhode Islanders who are homeless or in greatest danger of becoming homeless. [Failed]

Agriculture Viability & Profitability

Resolution for recommendations to strengthen agriculture (H-6287) This House Resolution requests that RIDEM, RIDOH, RIEDC and the Division of Planning work with the RI Agricultural Partnership and other agricultural interests, non-profit entities, municipalities, academic institutions, and the planning community to review current state laws related to agriculture and submit recommendations to the General Assembly for amendments designed to establish policies and programs conducive to expanded food production and to the sustainability and expansion of agricultural operations in Rhode Island. [Passed]

What do candidates for governor say about transportation choices?

From the Coalition for Transportation Choices:

The future of Rhode Island’s transportation system is important to you, but what do the candidates for Governor of Rhode Island say about their commitment to fostering transportation choices?

On September 28, the Environment Council of Rhode Island and the Providence College Political Science Department & Board of Programmers co-hosted a Gubernatorial candidates forum at Providence College. Kenneth Block, Frank Caprio, Lincoln Chafee and John Robitaille answered a series of questions about Rhode Island’s future including the following question on transportation:

“Rhode Island’s transportation funding system is broken. More of the state’s borrowing goes to cover interest payments than current highway improvements and we are cutting back RIPTA services. What is your strategy to improve and modernize Rhode Island’s transportation system?”

You can view a video of the candidate’s response to this and other questions here or review NBC 10′s coverage of the full debate here.

Gubernatorial Candidates answer question about transportation at the Environment Council of Rhode Island debate:

More coverage on the debate at Turnto10.com.

2010 General Assembly highlights which impact smart growth agenda

State House Photo (cc) Mr. Ducke from Flickr.

Advances for transfer of development rights (TDR), transportation, housing; Setback for community comprehensive planning reform

Rhode Island lawmakers adjourned for the year at 4:10 a.m. on Friday, June 11, 2010. The following are highlights of bills that have an impact on community & economic development and quality of place.

Planning/Land Development

H-7588 (Representative Carter)
This Act increases the effectiveness of existing TRANSFER OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS (TDR) legislation for the Town of North Kingstown and supports the Town of Exeter in establishing its own TDR ordinance. Grow Smart supported this legislation with the following written testimony.
[Passed]

S-2901 (Senator Tassoni)
This Act would have amended EXISTING LAWS ON STATEWIDE PLANNING and provided additional flexibility and efficiencies to the process of updating municipal comprehensive plans. Grow Smart supported this legislation with the following written testimony.
[Failed]

H-7533 (Representative Newberry)
This Act would have repealed “THE RI LAND DEVELOPMENT & SUBDIVISION REVIEW ENABLING ACT OF 1992. Grow Smart opposed this legislation with the following written testimony.
[Failed]

Transportation

S-2744 (Senator DiPalma),
H-7734 (Representatives Handy, Ajello, Rice M, Sullivan)
This Act would have created the RHODE ISLAND HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE & PUBLIC TRANSIT TRUST to fund highway maintenance, commuter rail operations and maintenance, enhancing and expanding existing transit services, and for the upkeep, maintenance and repair of local roads and bridges. View oral testimony by Grow Smart and other members of the Coalition for Transportation Choices (CTC) on YouTube.
[Failed]

S-3023 (Senators Connors, Miller)
This CTC supported Resolution created a SPECIAL SENATE LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION FUNDING. It is expected that the study commission will convene in the fall and report its findings in time to make a second attempt at establishing a RHODE ISLAND HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE AND PUBLIC TRANSIT TRUST FUND in the next legislative session.
[Passed]

S- 2241 (Senators Miller, C Levesque, and Connors),
H-7497 (Reps. Walsh, Handy, Ferri, Ruggiero, Rice M.)
JOINT RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS AND MEMBERS OF THE RHODE ISLAND CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO CO-SPONSOR, SUPPORT, AND VOTE IN FAVOR OF DESIGNATED PENDING LEGISLATION, another CTC backed measure.
[Passed]

Housing

H-7397

(Representative Watson)
(Article 1, p.4) The Neighborhood Opportunities Program (NOP) was funded at $1.5 million, despite Governor Carcieri’s earlier proposal to eliminate its funding entirely. NOP is Rhode Island’s most critical program for ending homelessness and developing affordable housing. Grow Smart supported continued funding of this vital investment through HousingWorks RI.

Bonds

H-7397 (Representative Watson)
Article 5 of the House Budget Bill authorizes Bond Referendum Questions for the November Ballot. Among them are proposals for an $84.7 million Transportation Bond (roads, bridges & transit) and a $14.7 million Open Space & Recreation Bond to acquire land at Rocky Point in Warwick, the former Shooter’s property on the Providence Waterfront and for improvements to Fort Adams State Park in Newport.
[Passed]

Grow Smart will be deciding shortly whether to endorse either or both of these bond referenda.

CTC Backs Emergency Transportation Funding

The Coalition for Transportation Choices has added The Public Transportation Preservation Act of 2010 (S.3412) to its list of Federal Legislative priorities.

The bill, introduced in Congress on May 25, would provide an immediate, temporary infusion of $2 billion in transit operating funding to preserve service for the millions of Americans who rely on transit every day, and to save and create thousands of jobs. This is immediate help for the transit funding crisis happening in Rhode Island and across the nation. (View a map showing transit agency cutbacks across the nation at the Transportation For America website).

Call Sen. Jack Reed at (202) 224-4642 and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at (202) 224-2921 to thank them for co-sponsoring this legislation and urge them to take a leadership role in ensuring the swift passage of this bill.

A recent survey by the American Public Transportation Association indicates that since January of 2009, 84 percent of transit systems raised fares, cut service or are considering one of those actions. These cuts are difficult for lower-income people, working families, older Americans, people with disabilities, African Americans, and Latinos – all of whom are particularly dependent on transit service to get to jobs, take their children to school, and access health care and other essential services. Further, more than half of our nation’s transit agencies have laid off workers or are considering layoffs in the future.

These tough economic times call for this emergency legislation. We’ll continue to update you on the progress of this bill and let you know what you can do to help.

Sincerely,
Coalition for Transportation Choices.

Coalition for Transportation Choices

Connecticut Gubernatorial candidates vow to turn around cities

Photo (cc) Rich Moffitt

The Hartford Courant’s CapitolWatch Blog writes about Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont’s plan for Connecticut’s cities:

The plan calls for transforming urban education, improving local manufacturing, tying new development into transit, making the cities into transportation depots, reimbursing cities with increased state funding, establishing a gun registry to prevent criminals from obtaining firearms, and helping families by creating a state earned income tax credit for the first time in Connecticut history.

Not to be outdone, the other Democratic candidate, former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, released a statement about his championing of Connecticut’s cities:

The state needs to do more to support our cities and urban areas, and I’m glad to see Ned taking an interest in that discussion. But urban revitalization requires a much more comprehensive, holistic approach than what Ned suggested today. I should know; I spent 14 years turning a city around. Yes, job creation is a huge piece of what we did; almost 5,000 new jobs. But that wouldn’t have been possible without the other issues we focused on: we lowered crime by 63 percent, expanded access to health insurance, made pre-k available to all children, built thousands of units of affordable housing, improved transportation and mass transit, dramatically overhauled the city’s infrastructure, and made government smaller and more effective. That’s why Stamford has been recognized as one of the safest, best cities in the nation. I welcome Ned to this discussion, and I again urge him to have that discussion with me in cities and towns across the state.

The candidates in Connecticut seem to be falling over themselves trying to be the candidate that will fix the state’s cities, infrastructure, and improve it’s transportation system. We have a Governor’s race happening here in Rhode Island too…

Fixing Our Broken Streets (June 23)

Empire Street, Providence

Fixing Our Broken Streets
In coordination with CTC, Sierra Club hosts a Providence Community Meeting to discuss Complete Streets planning and strategy

June 23, 6-8 pm
17 Gordon Avenue, Providence 02905
RSVP Here

The Rhode Island Chapter of the Sierra Club is launching a complete streets campaign to build public support for transportation reform. The grass tops initiative embodied by groups like Transit 2020, NUPTA and now Coalition for Transportation Choices has been wonderfully effective at getting policymakers on the transit reform bus, but the general public still needs to get on board.

Thus, Sierra is using its grassroots expertise to organize community meetings around the State in order to raise public awareness and involvement in the process of improving our streets so that they are more accommodative to all modes of traffic; the end result being the reduction of automobile use and all the environmental, economic, and health benefits that decrease would entail.

Please join Sierra Club and members of the Providence community as this exciting plan goes into motion. Refreshments will be provided. For further information, please contact Abel Collins.