PROVIDENCE, RI (February 8, 2018) – Grow Smart RI has officially announced the winners of its 7th Annual Rhode Island Smart Growth Awards. The awards honor those helping to shape a stronger Rhode Island through innovative revitalization and preservation initiatives and partnerships. Grow Smart RI says highlighting these accomplishments sheds light on the importance and variety of community revitalization efforts around the state.

The awards will be presented on Thursday, March 29th during the luncheon portion of Grow Smart RI’s Power of Place Summit at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence before a gathering of several hundred business, civic and elected leaders, development and real estate professionals, architects, builders, conservationists, policy advocates and community stakeholders from across Rhode Island.

“Each year, passionate, creative and resourceful Rhode Islanders show us the way to tap our state’s full potential through projects, plans and policies that play to Rhode Island’s strengths and generate enduring economic benefits, both statewide and in specific neighborhoods,” said Grow Smart’s Executive Director Scott Wolf.  

This year’s honorees include:

Outstanding Smart Growth Leaders:

Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, Director of RI Department of Health

Outstanding Smart Growth Projects:

Fair House – Warwick 
Forbes Street Solar Project – East Providence
Newport Transportation and Visitors Center – Newport

Outstanding Smart Growth Policies / Plans:

Central Falls Green & Complete Streets Ordinance

Outstanding Smart Growth Leaders

Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott

Appointed as Director of Health in 2015, Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, has provided a clear vision and a targeted strategy for addressing the socioeconomic and environmental factors that impact health outcomes for all Rhode Islanders, particularly those who live in under-resourced communities. As a part of this effort, Dr. Alexander-Scott has recognized the critical role that the built environment can play in facilitating access to physical activity and healthy foods. Under her leadership, the Rhode Island Department of Health has made significant investments in underserved communities through the Health Equity Zone (HEZ) initiative, a place-based approach that focuses on reducing health disparities through community-led strategies, including those that address neighborhood design, transportation, land use, and zoning. HEZs have worked with a wide range of local partners, including municipal leaders, residents, community-based organizations, and businesses, to address infrastructure issues and to institute policies that improve walkability and bike-ability. 

Outstanding Smart Growth Projects

Newport Transportation and Visitors Center, Newport

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) completed a community-oriented rebuilding project to the exterior of the City-owned Newport Transportation and Visitors Center, located on America’s Cup Avenue at the northern gateway to downtown Newport.  The $6.6 million project was funded with 90-percent federal grant money secured with the assistance of Rhode Island's Congressional Delegation, and with local match provided by the City of Newport and Discover Newport. The campus design for the Center features recycled materials, pedestrian safety enhancements, bike-friendly features, and resilient green infrastructure, including permeable pavers and rain gardens.  The Center welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to Aquidneck Island every year and serves as a transportation hub for RIPTA buses, tour carriers, taxis, bicyclists and more. Its proximity to downtown Newport makes it easy for visitors to tour the area without their cars – helping to mitigate traffic congestion and encourage more active forms of transport.

Forbes Street Solar Project, East Providence

Renewable energy facilities such as solar farms are needed in part to achieve Rhode Island’s greenhouse reduction goals by shifting from traditional carbon energy sources to a mix of renewable energy. The issue with these renewable energy facilities is that they require large footprints, potentially losing our farms and forests to these facilities. The Forbes Street solar farm is an excellent example of re-using developed and disturbed sites for renewable energy, while avoiding the loss of RI’s natural resources. In 2010 the East Providence City Council adopted a comprehensive plan update that identified the 70-acre former Forbes Street landfill as a good location for renewable energy production. Later that same year the city entered into a contract with CME-Hecate Solar LLC to initiate the process of re-purposing an abandoned landfill into a 9-megawatt solar farm. By the end of 2013, over 13,000 solar panels had been installed to generate 3.7 MW of electricity. Phase 2 has been initiated to add an additional 5 MW of capacity, making it the largest solar farm in the state. The site is situated such that it is buffered from neighboring properties and the landfill reclamation has maintained urban wildlife habitat. 

Fair House, Warwick

In 2017, The House of Hope Community Development Corporation, which for 29 years has worked to reduce homelessness in Rhode Island, restored the "Fair House" in Warwick, a one-time headquarters for annual state fairs, and created 10 apartments for people imperiled by chronic homelessness. The restoration demonstrates the ability of the Rhode Island community to revitalize and preserve not only a historic element of its built landscape, but to provide some of the state's most vulnerable citizens with the opportunity of renewed lives. The Greek Revival building was constructed around 1820 on a hilltop in the Pawtuxet Village section of Warwick, and for 28 years was the hub of annual state fairs. After the fairs outgrew the 12-acre site, it was transformed into a residence for the Rhodes family, which helped pioneer the state's textile industry, and eventually became a boarding house and nursing home. When it fell into disuse in the early 21st century, Pawtuxet Village activists welcomed House of Hope's purchase in 2012. With $2.5 million in funding from city, federal and state sources including the State Historic Tax Credit, House of Hope preserved its historic features and, in 2017, it opened the apartments for homeless men and women. 

Outstanding Smart Growth Policies /Plans

Central Falls Green & Complete Streets Ordinance

After over 18 months of work with more than twenty partner organizations, the City of Central Falls developed a benchmark policy that was passed unanimously by its City Council and signed into law this past January: The Green & Complete Streets Ordinance. It is New England's first municipal ordinance to require both complete streets (safely accommodating all users and all abilities) and green infrastructure (including street trees and bioswales) on all public and private roadway and parking projects. This ordinance marks a step forward from recent complete streets resolutions passed in Rhode Island and is an additional leap forward by incorporating green infrastructure elements into the core of the ordinance.  

About Grow Smart
Since 1998 Grow Smart has provided statewide leadership for diverse public and private interests seeking sustainable and equitable economic growth.  We promote such growth by advocating for compact development in revitalized urban, town and village centers balanced with responsible stewardship of our region’s natural assets – farmland, forests, the coastline, and the Bay.  We inform leaders, decision makers and concerned citizens about the many benefits of compact development and asset stewardship and provide research and training on proven smart growth strategies.  We convene broad coalitions that advocate policy reforms and specific projects designed to build communities where all people and businesses can thrive.