Rhode Island

Representatives in North Providence, RI are attempting to save a site used for a camp for inner-city youth from developers, and may resort to using eminent domain to do so.

The leader of an artist's collective was recently charged with trespassing after he was found by security guards inside a small furnished room his group had secretly built more than four years ago on mall property.

Housing advocates, public officials, and urban planners have joined forces in Rhode Island with a pledge of $10 million to support the preservation of open space by building more dense, mixed-use communities.

Researchers in Rhode Island find that residents in many parts of the state lack easy access to food.

The New England region's population growth rate continues to drop below that of the nation as a whole, measuring at a rate of just 0.2 percent between July 2005 and July 2006. This compares with a national growth rate of about 1 percent.

A study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that nutrient pollution in New England and the Gulf of Maine has increased over the last 15 years, due to pesticide use, stormwater runoff, and sewage leaks.

Even with variety of housing options for seniors, the state still has a long waiting list for units affordable to low-income people.

After decades of ill-designed public housing that kept a clear line between the low-income and everyone else, a new movement is collecting momentum for more accurately integrating public housing into neighborhoods while protecting their character.

A Rhode Island Planning Board has approved regulations requiring developers to build affordable houses in all projects over 6 units.

The opening of the Promenade at the Foundry, a 220-unit redeveloped rental complex in Providence's mill district, underscores Providence's continuing revitalization.

The planned $222.5 million transit hub will seamlessly link T.F. Green Airport with Providence and Boston by 2009.

Though more expensive than steel, a New England developer is finding more long term value in the use of concrete.

New England's second biggest city is experiencing a wealth of revitalization, and nowhere else is it more evident than in downcity, a district reconceptualized by Andres Duany in the 1990's.

The region's transportation network is beginning to buckle under the strain of auto-dependence, write Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson.

Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, proposes a "bold" strategy for maintaining Rhode Island's rural communities.

"How easy it has been for a school committee to go to the municipal voters and say that a new school may be built on cheap land out on the fringes of town or otherwise distant from most of the school's students. So, increasingly over the decades, public schools have emerged in outlying areas. And so we applaud the Rhode Island Department of Education for adding to its School Facility Planning Guidelines incentives for school districts to implement such "smart growth" ideas as building new schools closer to the center of town."

Rhode Island Department of Education promotes 'Smart Growth' principles in School Facilities Planning Guidelines.

Kevin M. Flynn is named to lead Rhode Island's Planning Division.

Citing economic reasons the University of Rhode Island announced that it will begin the process of closing down one of two publicly funded graduate planning programs in New England.

A new study quantifies a substantial return on historic tax credits in Rhode Island.