(Brian McDonald)
As Rhode Island’s real estate market has surged in recent years, so too have efforts to protect its pristine undeveloped land.
By many accounts, interest in open-space preservation is at an all-time high in the Ocean State.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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“There’s a tremendous amount of support to protect green space in Rhode Island,” said Fred Vincent, associate director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. “There are about 40 land trusts in the state, and that’s amazing when you consider that five or six years ago there may have been two.”
Rhode Islanders once again voiced support for land preservation last fall by passing a $34 million bond issue for open space and recreation. About $23.5 million of that will fund open space efforts over the next five years, with the balance going to recreational projects.
By leveraging private funding sources such as The Nature Conservancy of Rhode Island, a nonprofit land-conservation group, along with federal and local matching funds, the state’s $34 million bond issue will generate roughly $75 million worth of land preservation, Vincent said.
Now the DEM is working with local towns and cities on 25 land-preservation projects totaling 1,800 acres, worth a combined $15.5 million. While $5.4 million of that funding was awarded through state grants, the balance comes from municipalities, land trusts and private groups such as The Nature Conservancy.
All those projects are in various stages of negotiation and none has closed, according to the DEM’s Land Acquisition and Conservation program.
Noteworthy properties include 20 acres of land along Narrows Road in Bristol valued at $1.2 million; the 44-acre Morris Farm in Warwick, which is being purchased for about $1.6 million; a 55-acre tract along Tower Hill Road in South Kingstown valued at $1 million; and Nunes Farm, a 53-acre property in Middletown being preserved for $695,000, according to the state.
In addition to those local projects, the DEM also will spend $4.7 million over the next year to add about 1,400 acres to its land-management areas, which offer recreational activities such as hiking and fishing. Planned purchases include a 190-acre parcel in the state’s Arcadia Management Area in Hopkinton and about 350 acres in the Killingly Management Area in Glocester, valued at $670,000.
Rhode Island’s land trusts and private land-conservation groups also have been busy. The Nature Conservancy helped close 41 deals during its fiscal year 2001 – the most since its founding in 1989 – protecting 2,000 acres with a fair-market value of roughly $19 million, according to director Douglas Parker. Many of those projects were done with the help of local, state and federal dollars.
The Nature Conservancy has raised $43 million for land conservation in Rhode Island, with a goal of $50 million sometime next year. Parker said there are plenty of local governments seeking a piece of that funding.
“We’ve never been busier,” said Parker, adding that The Nature Conservancy is negotiating 70 to 80 land-protection projects in Rhode Island. “We have towns and land trusts coming to us constantly looking for help. I think they’re understanding the urgency, that they need to do something in the near term because it’s their last chance.”
But municipalities also are putting up their own money: In addition to matching 50 percent of the state’s bond money for open-space preservation, 11 communities last fall approved local open-space preservation bonds totaling more than $17 million.
With an increasing number of municipalities scrambling to protect open spaces, Grow Smart Rhode Island, a nonprofit growth-control advocacy group, plans to launch a new training program for government officials who make decisions about open-space deals. Grow Smart Executive Director Scott Wolf said the program will begin this fall.
