The Fastest Growing Communities in RI
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Housing construction has slowed to a crawl across most of Rhode Island, but some communities are still growing in spite of all the economic woes, a GoLocalProv review of U.S. Census data shows.
The fastest growing community is one of the most rural ones: West Greenwich.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBetween 2005 and 2011, developers received permits to build 360 single or multifamily units, marking a 17.4 percent increase in the amount of available housing units in West Greenwich over the seven-year period.
Other high-growth communities include: Exeter, at 9.8 percent over the seven years; North Smithfield, 7.3 percent, and Westerly, 5.9 percent. (See below chart for complete list.)
But these communities are the exception, rather than the rule. About half the cities and towns in the state are in a growth slump of one or two percent.
“I would say your analysis of building permit data and municipal growth rates is generally consistent with the trends we have seen here at the Statewide Planning Program,” said Jared Rhodes, chief of statewide planning. He added: “The largest growth rates are being experienced by the State’s outer ring suburban and rural communities, particularly in the Washington County area, as opposed to our urban and inner ring suburban communities.”
Those at the bottom include many of the financially distressed communities—Providence, East Providence, Woonsocket, and Pawtucket. However, communities like Warren and Warwick also made the bottom ten. .
‘There isn’t any growth’
But the issue of sluggish growth is not limited to just those communities.
“The last two years have been the worst in recorded history,” said Bob Baldwin, president of the Rhode Island Builders Association, who was citing state records. “This year was the worst of the worst.”
In all, permits were issued for just 700 housing units statewide in 2011, Census data shows.
Last year wasn’t much better, with a total of 934 units—all this in a state that once saw as many as 7,000 to 8,000 permitted housing units annually during the boom years of the 1970s and 1980s.
“There isn’t any growth. There is no work,” Baldwin said. “You have some cities and towns that have no permits at all—that’s no growth.” As housing growth has stagnated, municipal revenues have started to dry up, with the result that they’re “all going broke,” Baldwin added.
The housing slowdown is so serious that Baldwin’s two businesses—Trinity Excavating, and R.B. Homes, Inc.—have been forced to go out of state, into Massachusetts and Connecticut to get work. “We’ve gone as far as Hartford,” Baldwin said.
A silver lining?
A poor housing market may be bad for the construction industry, municipal revenues, and the economy as a whole, but there is a silver lining to it all.
The slowdown is an opportunity for builders and town planners to rethink how development can happen in a way that benefits both the economy and the environment, according to Tricia Yadele, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation and director of the Rhode Island office.
She said she hopes communities consider how to more efficiently plan their growth, using less space but getting more out of it. Communities where homes, workplaces, and shopping centers are close together save gas money and commuting time, as well as natural resources, Yedele said.
So-called 'smart growth' is hardly a new idea, but it's one whose time may have come, she said. “I don’t know if anyone is thinking through the slowdown in growth as an opportunity to revisit regulations for development,” Yedele said. “Now would be a time to do that.”
How they did it: communities that are succeeding
Growth is so small statewide that even one development can skew the numbers, making one community look like it is leaping past the others, according to Baldwin. That explains, in part, why West Greenwich is so far ahead of the rest. Between 2005 and 2011, the town issued permits for 360 units, but the bulk of those, about 300, were for just one development in 2005—GrandeVille at Greenwich, according to town planner Jennifer Paquet.
But the community still has a history of high growth, apart from that one project: between 1990 and 2000 the population increased by about 46 percent, according to Paquet.
What separates West Greenwich from other rural communities is its minimum two-acre zoning requirement for single-family homes, which allows for more development in a given area than communities that require more acres per home, Paquet said.
Another success story is Westerly.
“I think we are very fortunate because of our location,” said Blanche Higgins, the assistant town planner. “We haven’t suffered from the huge numbers of foreclosures.”
The familiar real estate motto—location, location, location—may be the best explanation for why Westerly is doing so well. Westerly is close to Interstate 95 and conveniently in between urban centers like Providence and New London Connecticut. It’s also a thriving beach destination for retirees and vacationers from places like New York City.
And Westerly has enhanced its appeal by revitalizing its historic downtown area, Higgins added.
It’s that combination of a small-town feeling with city-access that keeps people coming to Westerly, according to Higgins. “I think we all know that we’re very fortunate,” she concluded.
Permitting process ‘a nightmare’
Statewide, the Rhode Island Builders Associations is pushing for a reform of a local and state permitting process that Baldwin described as a “massive barrier” that has either slowed or stopped growth in communities. “It takes longer in Rhode Island to get permits for a project than to build it,” Baldwin said.
Builders have issues at the state level with permits from DEM and the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), Baldwin said.
Locally, they have to contend with a host of departments with different priorities and policies—public works, building, fire, sewer, and water. “They’ve all got their hands in the permitting process,” Baldwin said. “They’ve turned it into a nightmare.”
He said the Builders Association will soon be announcing a months-long survey it will be undertaking of the permitting process in conjunction with the state Economic Development Corporation. That survey will seek to identify where the “bottlenecks” in the permitting process are as well as the economic cost of delays.
That survey, Baldwin said, will lead to a reform proposal about a year or so from now. A number of state agencies and offices are expected to be involved, according to Baldwin, including DEM, EDC, CRMC, and the Governor’s office.
It’s too early to say exactly what might be proposed, but Baldwin said that it won’t be limited to issues with state agencies. The local obstacles to obtaining permits in a timely fashion are a statewide issue that must be addressed as well, he said.
“In some way, shape, or form, as a state, we have no choice,” Baldwin said. “We can’t continue to be last.”
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