Grow Smart getting its message out to candidates

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian, North Kingstown Town Councilor John Patterson, state House of Representatives candidate Peter Martin and Lincoln Town Council candidate Timothy E. McMahon all received their copies of Grow Smart Rhode Island’s “Briefing Book for Candidates” in the mail late last month.
The four were among about 500 elected officals and candidates for local, state and federal offices to get the 47-page booklet from the smart-growth advocacy group. The booklet is called “A Blueprint for Sustainable Prosperity and Enhanced Quality of Place.”
But the mailings didn’t stop there.
Another 220 “key” people in governments around Rhode Island were also mailed a copy, Grow Smart Rhode Island Director of Research & Communications John Flaherty said recently. The nonprofit group, dedicated to what it calls “sustainable and prosperous growth and development,” also planned to send 3,600 e-mails with digital copies of the booklets.
The booklet has been updated, both in content and design, from its 2004 and 2006 versions, he said. It’s an attempt to detail smarter growth policies that can be used in all levels of government, Flaherty said, and is designed “to shape the candidate’s thinking about their office.”
It includes a wrap-up of smart-growth-related legislation in the state legislature last session. There are sections on the R.I. Historic Preservation Investment Tax Credit program and public transportation. “It’s a way to point out what did pass and a way to point out what didn’t pass,” Flaherty said, “and to point out that we can resurrect those in the coming legislative session.”
In the section that seeks better policy for creating affordable housing, the booklet criticizes the General Assembly for slashing funding to the Neighborhood Opportunities Program. The group recommends reducing “municipal reliance on the property tax as an educational funding source through statewide property tax reform, so that communities will have fewer fiscal reservations about developing compact affordable housing in their neighborhoods.” At the local level, Grow Smart recommends being proactive and supporting community-development groups.
“We’re trying to give people ways to talk about what are otherwise very complicated issues,” Flaherty said, adding that there’s a “how others talk” section for each issue. That section includes quotes from media stories and from Grow Smart.
Patterson, the Republican councilor from North Kingstown, isn’t running for re-election this fall, but said last week that Grow Smart and its previous policy books have influenced town policy over the years. They have also had an impact in the redevelopment of Quonset Business Park, he said.
Avedesian, a Republican, said the booklet is an offering that elected officials, regardless of party, should take note of. “A lot of times, even when candidates and officials have the right kind of intentions, without this tool it’s hard for them to know where to start,” he said in an interview.
Avedesian has been Warwick’s mayor for eight years and is running for re-election. In his city, work has started on a rail station that’s linked to T.F. Green Airport. That project, dubbed the Intermodal Station, has been 10 years in the making and is an example of sustainable growth mentioned in booklet, he said. “We do all these little things on our own and it’s nice to have that validated” in a collection of state issues like this, he said. “The other thing that’s nice is not only giving the state recommendations, but the towns and cities have recommendations, too.”
The ability for an advocacy group like Grow Smart to put all this information into one document “really shows how far we’ve come” as a sustainable state, Avedesian said.
“It wasn’t all that long ago that Scott Wolf and Grow Smart started having conversations and people would look at them and say, ‘What are you talking about?’” he said. “Now, sustainable development and green building are taking place and this is a great way to showcase that.”
Newport’s Martin is a former Aquidneck Island Planning Commission chairman and a current Democratic candidate for House District 75. In the past, he’s been to a few Grow Smart workshops that helped him in his role as a Newport Planning Board member, he said.
The booklet for him is welcomed information about state and local policy.
“I get the message that Grow Smart has put out – most of our problems come from poor planning, most of our problems come from making poor zoning decisions,” he said, while putting up campaign signs around his neighborhood.
“When you’re on the campaign trail, there are so many things to manage, to think about and to do,” said McMahon, a Democrat. “This briefing book gave me a good deal of insight and helped to solidify some of my thinking on smart growth … and like anything worthwhile, it raised more questions about the issues that I can now begin to explore in more depth.” &#8226