Grow Smart Rhode Island

1.grow smart ri's 2024 power of place summit was by all accounts, including the post summit survey, very successful in energizing the smart growth movement, engaging our extensive set of community partners, strengthening those valuable relationships, promoting our key policy reform priorities, and optimizing the summit's fundraising potential.more than 330 people attended, a somewhat higher turnout than our last summit, bringing together the largest and most diverse gathering of community changemakers in rhode island. And thanks to the leadership of nick roach and the generosity of buff chace, we hosted a pre-summit reception atop the peerless lofts on thursday, may 2. This was primarily for sponsors and close supporters with a robust turnout of approximately 50 people who enjoyed the music, surroundings, refreshments and a keynote preview offered by gil penalosa. Financially, net surplus revenue from the summit exceeded our budget projection by nearly $5,000 - the surplus was $97,220 vs a projected $91,445. 2. Smart growth workshops were held for local officials and community stakeholders in late september of 2024. Local officials and community stakeholders from woonsocket to block island participated in these workshops to learn more about the tools and policies for strengthening their communities' quality of life, health, environment and economic sustainability. Nate kelly and jeff davis of horsley witten group presented on mixed-use and transit-oriented development (tod) zoning to encourage more housing production in and around downtowns. Jillian finkle presented grow smart ri's main street rhode island initiative to activate and revitalize main streets and key commercial corridors. John flaherty of green street associates and an independent contractor for grow smart ri showcased opportunities for improving the safety and comfort of walking and biking, and sarah ingle of ripta outlined how municipalities can collaborate with ripta to improve transit service and access at the local level.

Public policy: we organized our policy and program work in 2024 under the goals discussed below: a. Revitalized main streets and downtownsspecific 2024 deliverables /outputs on this front included: 1. Main street capacity building and technical assistance initiativesdeputy director and main street director jillian finkle secured a a $26,000 grant from commerce ri through the main street streetscape improvement fund (rhode island energy's commitment of $20,000 serves as the required match.) the grant supported a main street network kickoff event on november 16, 2024 and will support ongoing monthly main street roundtable programs the november 16 event was a kickoff breakfast at oasis international for a new main street ri network. Based on feedback from the 25 attendees at the event, we will help develop a main street ri network in 2025, providing 4 virtual and 2 in-person meetings for members of community groups working in commercial districts. We will invite one "host" community per meeting to lead a presentation, detailing their process on a specific project and/or a discussion based on a current challenge they are encountering. Among our 2024 main street virtual roundtables were the following: " september 26: parking studies, featuring john shevlin of pare, nicole lafontaine, planning director for north kingstown and ben mandel, economic development planner for north kingstown. " october 31: the changing face of retail in commercial districts, featuring jo lee of pop up rhody, jan dane of stock culinary goods on hope street in providence, and former gsri board member leslie moore of pawtucket's black block. 2. State historic tax credit - in collaboration with key allies, especially preserve ri and the preservation society of newport county, we devoted a lot of effort raising alarm bells about the financial and regulatory challenges facing one of grow smart ri's signature achievements, the state historic tax credit program ("htc"). Val talmage of preserve ri and grow smart ri executive director, scott wolf, along with our respective communications staff began mapping out 2025 legislative and executive branch htc reform and recapitalization strategies. To inform and assist our efforts, we held a late october, 2024 strategy meeting with reps donovan and speakman and a similar meeting with senate allies lou dipalma (senate finance committee chair) and dawn euer (senate environment committee chair). At the same time, we have jointly developed several historic tax credit promotional materials, including a petition accessible on both our web sites calling on our state leaders to "fix" the program. B) expand and enhance transportation choices specific 2024 deliverables /outputs on this front included:1. We managed two grants through the rhode island department of health (ridoh focused on the built environment and public health and seeking to influence policies and actions that create more opportunity for increased physical activity. Among other things, this included education around land use and zoning reforms, advocacy for implementing rhode island's state-approved transit master plan and bicycle mobility plan. It also included a portion of the work we do advancing the main street ri initiative and programming that activates healthy, thriving main streets and encourages walking and physical activity.the ridoh grants are supporting a variety of communications, organizing and policy development activities that raise awareness and progress in addressing the link between the built environment and public health, especially physical activity. 2. "rhodies in transit" initiative grow smart engaged business, civic and elected leaders across the state about the importance of public transit to economic development, housing production, main street revitalization and climate actionthe purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of decision makers and opinion leaders about the importance of investing in better transit.seven (7) trips were conducted and promoted heavily through social media. 3. State transportation advisory committee (tac)john flaherty of grow smart ri was elected chair of the state tac at its february, 2024 meeting. During the spring he began encouraging increased action and influence by the tac in accordance with the rules and standards of the state planning council (of which the tac is a committee). John stressed that the the tac can and should be playing a stronger role in the development of the 10-year pipeline of statewide transportation investment projects, known as the state transportation improvement program (stip), among other ways to influence a balanced and well-maintained multimodal transportation system.4. Advocacy for stronger public transportation and active transportation systems. Grow smart ri advocated for better transit and improved active mobility infrastructure and opposed measures/policies that we believed would undermine such objectives.c. Reform land use and economic development policies and practices specific 2024 deliverables /outputs on this front included: 1.scott wolf continued to be an active member of the ri house's commission on housing affordability, still ably chaired by a strong grow smart ri ally, representative june speakman. Scott also served as a member of the advisory committee helping to guide the development of a new state housing plan. 2, we were part of a broad coalition which successfully advocated for a robust housing bond for the november 2024 ballot. The final number landed at $ 120 million, one of, if not the largest single proposed commitment to increasing housing supply in rhode island's history, albeit not nearly enough to deal with the full scale of ri's dramatic housing shortage. This bond passed by a roughly 2 to 1 margin. 3. On another housing related front, we were pleased that renewed state funding was authorized for a policy reform for which we have been a leader--- state municipal infrastructure grants to catalyze affordable housing and workforce production in smart growth locations.