Grow Smart RI
Summary of 2006
Accomplishments
Policy:
1. Land-Use 2025: Attracted nearly 500 state and
local officials, policymakers, development professionals and citizen
stakeholders for the Power of Place Summit to kick off
2. Historic Tax Credit Program:
Led the 55 member coalition that safeguarded a program that has been
enormously successful in stimulating new jobs, new tax revenue and new economic
vitality in historic neighborhoods from
3. Land Conservation: Working with our coalition
partners, promoted the successful passage of s-2497 giving state-owned open
space lands a new level of protection.
The new law establishes a system of checks and balances governing any
proposal to sell or change the use of properties such as state parks and
management areas.
4. Housing:
Participated as an active member of HousingWorksRI’s
Steering Committee in winning statewide voter approval of a $50 million bond
for sorely needed affordable housing production. Also promoted the successful passage of a
number of other HousingWorksRI platform goals such as
continued state investment in the Neighbohood
Opportunities Program (NOP), Supportive Services Pilot Program and the State
Historic Tax Credit Program which is helping to boost housing production while
at the same time spurring neighborhood revitalization. Grow Smart also chaired and staffed the Rhode
Island Housing and Conservation Trust Study Commission which published a report
with recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly leaders for activating
and funding the state’s long dormant housing and conservation trust fund.
5. Transportation:
Successfully advocated for passage of the statewide $88.5 million bond
to support “fix-it-first” infrastructure investment as well as to support
commuter rail and repair and replacement of RIPTA buses, all of which reduce
traffic congestion and help to improve air quality. Grow Smart also served on Transit 2020 and
the New Public Transit Alliance, both of which are mobilizing broad-based
support for building a first class transit system to serve our State’s
economic, environmental and mobility needs.
6. Brownfields:
Helped shape the 2006 Brownfields Act which
streamlines the state’s existing brownfields law in
an effort to lower the regulatory barriers to brownfields
redevelopment. Grow Smart will continue
to monitor implementation of the Act which includes an alternative form of
liability relief to the settlement agreement process.
7. Water:
Grow Smart participated as a member of the Coalition for Water Security
in ongoing efforts to help shape a statewide water policy for improving water
management and for ensuring an adequate and clean water supply for priority
uses. The adequate supply of clean water
has quickly become a major constraint to rational land and economic
development.
Workshops /
1.
§
Conservation Development Workshops: Three Conservation
Development workshops, presented in partnership with DEM and the
Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, drew 92 municipal
officials and staff, builders and developers, engineers, architects and
landscape architects. Conservation
development is a creative land-use technique that allows a community to guide
growth to the most appropriate areas within a parcel of land to avoid impacts
to the environment and to protect the character-defining features of the
property.
§
Addressing Town-Specific Needs: Responding to
municipal demand, Grow Smart launched its first-ever
town specific workshop to address the particular planning needs of a single
community. A three-part workshop was
presented for
§
Candidate Workshops: 2 workshop sessions were held
in October 2006 to better acquaint candidates for political office with a wide
range of land-use issues that affect quality of life and economic
prosperity. The first was tailored to
broader issues of concern for statewide candidates and the second was geared to
municipal issues for local candidates.
§
Guidance on Affordable Housing Strategies: 3 affordable
housing discussions were held in May at the request of the Washington County
Regional Planning Council. The sessions,
held in Narragansett,
§
Continuing the “Making Good
Land-Use Decisions” Series: 2 three-part
workshops were offered to municipal officials on “What municipal officials
needs to know for making sound, legally defensible land-use decisions”. The workshops were offered in the northern
and southern parts of the state to better accommodate all municipalities. Grow Smart developed this workshop module several
years ago and it continues to meet an ongoing need for basic land-use training
among boards and commissions facing regular turnover.
2. CommunityConnectionRI Calendar:
As a public service, the Grow Smart RI Land-Use Training Collaborative
partnered with the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to
produce CommunityConnectionRI,
a public electronic bulletin board. CommunityConnectionRI is a one-stop source
of information about workshops and conferences pertaining to land use and water
resources. It is intended for use by
municipal elected and appointed officials, staff, planners, citizens, watershed
councils, land trusts, environmentalists, historic preservationists, and the
design and development community.
Public Education/
1. Expanded Marketing Reach: Substantially increased both the
number of subscribers to Grow Smart’s electronic
newsletter and visitation to Grow Smart’s website.
e-Newsletter Subscriptions*
|
|
2003** |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
% Δ (05-06) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
# of New Subscribers |
1,746 |
458 |
605 |
713 |
17.8% |
|
Total Subscribers |
1,746 |
2,125 |
2,424 |
3,119 |
28.6% |
* Totals subscribers reflect
attrition and removal of expired email addresses. % Δ reflects
increase over previous growth figure
** 2003 was the year we initiated the e-newsletter
Website Visitation
|
|
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
% Δ (05-06 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Web Visits |
12,720 |
24,823 |
46,940 |
74,993 |
60% |
|
Page Views |
28,862 |
65,606 |
111,775 |
164,697 |
47% |
2. Grassroots Lobbying and e-Advocacy:
Utilized e-communications capabilities to enlist and mobilize support
for several issue positions during 2006, including advocacy for the Historic
Tax Credit Program, HousingWorksRI legislative platform,
Transportation Bond, Land Conservation bill and advocacy against the Harrah’s
Narragansett Indian Casino proposal. In
select e-campaigns, subscribers were
provided with the means to email correspondence to elected officials.
3. Media Outreach: Produced and distributed 16 press
releases in 2006 generating a significant number of news stories promoting Grow
Smart’s activities and advocacy. One notable achievement was the widespread
publishing of a Grow Smart Op-Ed policy agenda for the future of
4. Candidate Outreach: Produced and mailed over 500
copies of a 2006 Candidates Briefing Book, entitled “Strategies for Protecting and Quality of Place and Expanding Economic
Opportunity”, to encourage broader discussion of the many land-use related
policy challenges facing
5. Speaking Engagements:
Staff regularly speaks and presents smart growth topics to a wide
variety of local and national audiences from middle school and college students
to professional associations, statewide interest groups, fraternal
organizations, civic and neighborhood groups.
2006 audiences included the Knotty Oak Middle School, Roger Williams
University, the RI League of Cities and Towns, New Partners for Smart Growth
Conference, Growth Management Leadership Alliance, Congress for The New
Urbanism, The RI State Historic Preservation Conference, the RI Land &
Water Conservation Summit and the RI League of Cities and Towns and the
Tiverton Land Trust among many others.
These speaking engagements help to build greater awareness of the need
and urgency for smart growth development patterns among a diverse universe of
community stakeholders.
6. Coalitions:
Grow Smart either participates in or leads coalitions to advance its
policy priorities. In 2006, these included:
The Coalition for Neighborhood & Economic Renewal (Historic Tax Credit),
the Coalition for Water Security, Transit 2020, the New Public Transit Alliance
and HousingWorksRI, among others.
Institutional
Development:
1. Board Reorganization:
A new Board Chair was elected (Deming Sherman) and a Vice Chair position
was created (Stephen Farrell). Through a
Board Development Committee chaired by Howard Kilguss,
the Board of Directors recruited 5 new Board members in December bringing fresh
perspective and expertise from the business, development, real estate finance,
engineering and planning professions.
2. Advisory Council Revitalization: Convened the Advisory Council to
re-examine its role since it was originally established in 1998. The Advisory Council has played a major role
in building a cohesive private/public partnership for specific smart growth
efforts. The Council has traditionally
met on a bi-monthly basis to help staff develop policy, programmatic and public
education initiatives and has served as a communication vehicle for agencies
working on different aspects of sprawl.
With the advent of electronic newsletters and a myriad of advocacy
coalitions formulated around specific issues, the Advisory Council is in the
process of redefining its most effective course of action to advance smart
growth.
3. Financial Development: Generated nearly $550,000 in
revenue for 2006, representing the largest amount of revenue raised by Grow
Smart in a single year. This success was
due in part to the Board’s support for hiring a part-time fundraising
consultant in 2005 and the substantial amount raised from first time
contributors. Internal fiscal
management was also improved with the hiring of a new financial management
staff person providing better financial oversight capabilities and planning
tools.
4. Integrated Data Management:
Completed an analysis of comprehensive software tools to help Grow Smart
fully integrate its contact database, improve efficiency and better leverage
the latest information technology to achieve more with less. After examining several products, staff
selected a single product that will advance our management of fundraising,
event registration, website content management, email marketing, constituent
communications and more. Installation
will take place in early 2007.