 |
| projo.com |
Digital Extras |
|
||
|
2006 EPpy Winner -- Best multimedia Providence, R.I., Overcast 43° |
|
|
|
8.6.2001
Land-use experts cite R.I. initiatives as model for others BY PETER B. LORD Journal Environment Writer The public lands now set aside are already overused and there's no way the government can afford to buy all the land necessary to properly maintain our ecosystems, said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a rancher and investment company director. He said landowners should be compensated by government for setting aside land. "The idea is to create a new way, a third way for saving land," added Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. "This creates that new way, apart from land confiscation and regulation." Simply buying up land or preventing owners from using it through regulation won't conserve enough land over the long term, officials said. The two addressed the opening session of the National Governors Association annual meeting yesterday afternoon and released a new report from the association that describes methods for promoting the conservation of "working lands." The report urges new emphasis on tactics such as buying development rights, paying farmers annually to take their land out of production or provide funds to protet or restore wetlands. Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, chairman of the governor's association, also devoted much of the opening session to one of his prime issues, controlling sprawling land development that he said impacts every state in the country. In his remarks and in a special "tool kit" distributed to every governor, Rhode Island received some glowing praise for anti-sprawl efforts already well under way. But a newly released state report also showed that Rhode Island has already lost a lot of open space. On two large screens, the governors saw an aerial photograph of downtown Providence taken several decades ago, then they saw three current photographs of Providence showing Providence Place mall, the State House and the downtown rivers. "Downtown Providence was little more than a railyard," Glendening said. "Now, look how beautiful the city has become." He also passed on the recent news that the developer of the Masonic Temple across from the State House just received financing to convert the structure into a luxury hotel. "Our past does not have to be our future," Glendening said. He encouraged his fellow governors to look at pictorial displays of Rhode Island at the State House and Green State Airport so they could see how much the state has changed. In conjunction with the governors meeting, Governor Almond released the first report of the Growth Planning Council he appointed last year to examine the economic, environmental and social impacts of the state's current development patters. It reflected what Rhode Island is doing right and what it is doing wrong. The report warns that if the state continues to grow as it has during the last 40 years, it will face substantial financial liabilities and its cities and villages will lose their standing as places of culture and commerce. Among the findings reported by co-chairmen Jan Reitsma, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, and Tom Schumpert, director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation: • Rhode Island has developed land during the last 40 years at a rate nine times its population growth. • Since 1961, Rhode Island has developed more land than it did during the previous 325 years of settlement. • The state's five most densely populated cities have nearly 11,000 vacant lots and much higher property taxes than many of their suburban and rural neighbors. • Twenty more years of similar development will cost Rhode Island taxpayers $1.5 billion for new infrastructure. The council recommended more government investment in the cities, increased use of programs to revitalize mills and brownfields, and more support for local planning processes. Glendening distributed gift boxes to each governor. Each box contained a new Palm hand-held organizer that contained a 54-page "tool kit" designed to show new techniques to funnel growth toward already developed areas and away from farms and ecologically sensitive land. "Some of you know how to use Palm Pilots, some don't," Glendening joked. "For those who don't, I suggest you summon the first person you see under 30 for help." The tool kit contains 150 examples of successful anti-sprawl programs being put into use around the country. Six of the programs were from Rhode Island. Rhode Island was singled out for a campaign to develop hiking trails in every community in the state, for creating a growing system of bicycle paths, for proposing the Warwick train station near Green State Airport and for a number of planning and zoning initiatives. By comparison, not one example came from the state of Ohio. "We never hear of anything going on there," Joel S. Hirschhorn, director of natural resource policy studies for the association. He said Rhode Island is always being talked about in so-called smart growth circles. The recognized leaders are Maryland, Delaware, Utah, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, he said. Connecticut and Massachusetts are seldom cited for such efforts. "Half the governors see this as an important issue," Hirschhorn said. "The others?" He shrugged. Glendening displayed a video showing some of the challenges fast-growing Maryland faced. Not that long ago, the state was losing as much as 100 acres of farmland a day. Now, policies are in place to encourage growth in areas that are already developed. Maryland will no longer pay to extend infrastructure to rural areas. In Canton, Md., the American Can company closed, putting 800 people out of work and leaving behind an industrial complex that became an eyesore. State and private developers recently resurrected the complex and it now houses 40 new shops and high technology companies employing 750 people. Bladesburg, Md., a deteriorating suburb with a high crime rate, was turned into a safe place, so people don't wish to leave and build elsewhere. In his talk, Roosevelt said it is time to end the deep divisions between environmental activists and the farmers and ranchers who own so much land that is critical for the nation's plants and animals. He dismissed right-wingers who scoff at the possibility of species extinction, saying there is ample evidence that extinctions are occurring rapidly. "Dismantling the components that make the ecosystem healthy is injudicious at best, and outrageously arrogant at worst," Roosevelt said. He was equally critical of environmental advocates who blame farmers and ranchers for destroying fragile ecosystems. Assuming the complaints of environmentalists are valid, what can be done, Roosevelt asked rhetorically. Not everything can be turned into a tourist attraction, he noted. "Are you going to put free-spirited cowboys to work as busboys?" he said. Roosevelt said he supported the association's new report, "Private Lands, Public Benefits" which resulted from an earlier summit of the governors. The report calls on policymakers to better coordinate private land conservation efforts, do a better job of creating public support for such programs and provide more public financing. Roosevelt said he is concerned because President Bush doesn't seem to support two federal programs that would help conserve wetlands and farmlands.
|
Advertising newspaper adsshop & subscribe
|
||||||||
|
||
Printer-Friendly Version
