Grow Smart Rhode Island

Outreach and communcation1) Grow Smart ri continued its stepped up communications strategy for two overriding purposes a.) To support an expanded fundraising capacity, and b.) To increase Grow Smart's influence with targeted opinion leaders, decision makers and the public.2) staff initially engaged the services of the jai communications group (jai cg) of providence in february, 2015 to help us develop and execute a communications strategy to maximize our visibility and influence. Our strategies now include earned media, social media (including digital story-telling and advertising), email marketing,events and paid advertising.3) earned media: earned significant free media in 2022. Public positions that Grow Smart ri took in favor of stronger forest conservation measures, in opposition to policies that encourage siting of large solar projects on forested land, in support of implementation of the recently adopted bold, visionary transit master plan for ri along with increased funding for bike and ped infrastructure, and in support of a transit rider friendly alternative to an ill advised proposal to substitute multiple small transit hubs in downtown providence for one centralized hub with a critical mass of bus berths, amenities and easy transfer opportunities.4) email marketing: Grow Smart ri has been utilizing constant contact since 2003 to produce and distribute newsletters, event invitations (and rsvp's), action alerts, surveys and other communications to a large list of subscribers, now totaling approximately 6,000. 5)power of place summit: Grow Smart ri held its 10th annual Smart growth awards program virtually on monday, june 14, 2021. The Smart growth awards program is an important way to celebrate and promote awareness of those advancing Smart growth on the ground, inspire others to join the movement and raise money to support Grow Smart ri's workplan.u.s. Senator tom carper, chairman of the senate environment & public works committee, delivered the keynote address "bringing america's transportation and infrastructure into the 21st century". Senator carper's committee leadership position and close association with president biden make him one of the nation's most influential voices on the wide range of federal transportation and infrastructure proposals. His talk was followed by a distinguished panel discussion featuring Rhode u.s. Senator sheldon whitehouse, xaykham khamsyvoravong, chair of governor mckee's transition team sub-group on transportation and infrastructure, and beth osborne, director of transportation for america, a program of Smart growth america. The panel was moderated by nbc10's alison bologna.awards were issued in the categories of Smart growth plans, Smart growth projects and Smart growth leaders. The Grow Smart ri board adopted a new strategic plan for the organization at a special board meeting on july 29, 2021. The full plan is available on our website at www.growsmartri.org we organized monitoring and implementation frameworks for the strategic plan, and established a strategic plan monitoring team of 3 board members and one staffer.

Public policywe organized our policy and program work in 2022 under the goals discussed below:a) revitalize main streets and downtowns specific 2022 deliverables /outputs on this front have included: 1. Extension and recapitalization at the $ 28 million level of a signature Grow Smart ri policy initiative, the state historic tax credit program, a program which has incentivized hundreds of historic rehabs, representing billions of dollars of investments, largely in Rhode Island's urban and town centers and main street corridors. This represents a second consecutive year of significant new state funding commitments for the state historic tax credit, after an 8 year funding drought.2. Grow Smart ri was honored in late october of 2022 to receive a "rhody award" from preserve ri for our community impact.in the historic preservation and community revitalization arenas. Our award was distributed/showcased at a reception at ochre court in newport and a video highlighting our work and our community partners' appreciation for it was released at the reception. 3. Grow Smart ri ed scott wolf continued to be an active, vocal member of the commission on the low mod housing act. Scott and other Grow Smart ri staff were also sought out in 2022 by members of the state land use reform commission to inform their deliberations. This commission is examining potential reforms to Rhode Island's 30-year-old planning and land use regulatory laws with a special focus on reducing barriers to much needed housing production, barriers which have created a housing supply and affordability crisis in ri 4. A state-funded municipal infrastructure grant program that Grow Smart ri helped establish in 2018 is now beginning to yield Smart growth dividends. Modeled after a successful program in Massachusetts, the purpose of the grant program is to support projects that unlock needed housing production and other economic development opportunities in Smart growth locations. An initial pilot allocation of $1m from the fy22 state budget was awarded to projects in four municipalities. With an additional $2.5m allocated to the program in the fy'23 budget a new request for proposals was announced in late calendar year 2022. 5. Staff implemented main street promotional and coalition building activities funded through a grant from the commerce ri placemaking initiative. The activities included :-4 walking tours in late 2022 of main street districts around the state-downtown woonsocket -arctic village/west warwick-rolfe square/cranston -broad street/central falls -each tour will be documented/supplemented with a digital article, video, and photos that will be posted on our website the tours have each been attended by approximately 15 participants including municipal officials and staff as well as local partners and individuals from outside of each community. The program serves as a demonstration of the types of activities a main street program would conduct and provides content and a platform to continue to expand the conversation about why the program is needed.6. Staff continued to share a proposal to establish a statewide main street coordinating program in meetings with state and local leaders including staff at commerce ri, the new ri department of housing and the governor's office. . We advocated persistently that some of the $5 million in main street revitalization funds in the state's adopted fy23 budget be allocated to a main street ri initiative, and that the rules and regulations of the main street streetscape improvement program (through which these funds will be distributed) be amended to allow a statewide coordinating effort to be eligible to apply. Although these changes were not included in the fy23 state budget, they were subsequently adopted in the fy' 24 state budget. 7. Grow Smart ri partnered with roger williams university planning students and the city of east providence to conduct phase 2 of a main street revitalization plan for the riverside square district. B) expand and enhance transportation choicesspecific 2022 deliverables /outputs on this front included: 1. Early in 2022 a significant turning point was reached in favor of Grow Smart ri's longstanding advocacy around the future of ripta's system-wide bus hub in downtown providence. On february 15, 2022 providence business news reported that governor mckee had directed state officials to finally scrap a controversial plan for replacing the kennedy plaza bus hub with a series of smaller downtown hubs that would have imposed significant burdens on thousands of daily transit passengers. Instead, the governor directed ripta to conduct a series of public listening sessions, seeking feedback on an alternative: an indoor mixed-use transit hub concept on dorrance street that was proposed by Grow Smart ri board member don powers of union studio architects and board member emeritus buff chace of cornish associates. 2. Grow Smart ri led the charge to mobilize a range of more than two dozen community activists to voice strong concern to the state transportation advisory committee (tac), about the lack of progress in implementing both the state transit master plan and bike mobility plan - especially as federal dollars to make such investments have never been more readily available.whether for climate action, racial & social justice, seniors, youth, spurring transit-oriented housing, more affordable mobility options, public health & safety or economic development, there were many perspectives focused around a shared community goalc) reform land use and economic development policies and practicesspecific 2022 deliverables /outputs on this front included:1. The state forest conservation commission, chaired by Grow Smart ri staffer scott millar, completed a definition for old growth forests and forests with old growth characteristics. This definition will be used to help define ri's most important forests as required by the ri forest conservation act. The definition of ri's most important forests can be used to assist municipalities to make more informed land use decisions to to conserve these forest lands via local open space preservation efforts2. The charlestown town council voted at a public hearing held in august of 2022 to adopt the conservation development ordinance that scott millar prepared for the charlestown planning commission. Scott assisted the planning commission with amendments to their land development and subdivision regulations to implement conservation development.

Educationgrow Smart ri's return to an in person power of place summit on june 21, 2022 appeared to be well-received by a crowd of approximately 300 people. The summit survey results indicate that the keynote speaker, mike lydon, noted urbanist and Smart growth strategist, and the panel discussions were the top two most valuable elements of the summit, cited by 73% of respondents. This was followed by "networking throughout the day" which ranked 3rd, being cited by 59% of respondents. Nearly 2/3 (63%) believed that opportunities for collaboration with new partners will increase as a result of attending the summitthe summit remains an important fundraiser for advancing Grow Smart ri's mission. The 2022 summit generated a net surplus of about $96,000, which was the budgeted surplus based on the expectation that attendance would be lower due to covid-19. This compares to a net surplus of $118,000 in 2020 (virtual program with no facility rental or food and beverage costs) and a net surplus of $105,000 in 2018, which was our high-mark pre-pandemic. Grow Smart ri secured in the spring of 2022 a $15,000 grant from the van beuren charitable foundation to support a second, more targeted series of workshops to be presented in partnership with the aquidneck land trust (alt.) Designed to serve as the next steps in advancing open space preservation and compact, mixed-use development on aquidneck Island, each of the three proposed 2-hour workshops would provide detailed information about a specific Smart growth strategy: 1) mixed use development and zoning reform, 2) transit, transportation, and tod, and 3) conservation development design and solar siting.