Providence, Rhode Island’s Save the Bay, Inc. Exit received EPA funding in 2005 as part of the Smart Growth and Brownfields grant program. This program supported community efforts to integrate smart growth principles and practices into brownfield redevelopment efforts. The funding helped communities examine the regulatory climate for redevelopment of brownfield, infill, and vacant properties.
Save the Bay reviewed existing regulations, analyzed the history of its own redevelopment project, and coordinated with local and statewide stakeholders interested in improving the climate for coastal brownfield redevelopment. The organization’s coastal brownfield redevelopment work is significant because overlapping regulations influence coastal development patterns. State implementation of the Clean Water Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, brownfield redevelopment regulations, and local codes and ordinances all influence coastal redevelopment activity.
Released in 2006, the products from this work highlight the overlaps and provide lessons for policy-makers to improve the climate for redevelopment that benefits communities, local economies, the environment, and public health.
- Building the Save the Bay Center is a history of the Save the Bay Center redevelopment project on Providence's Fields Point site.
- Policy Lessons from the Coastal Brownfield Development of Fields Point, Providence, Rhode Island analyzes the regulatory and policy context for redeveloping coastal brownfields in Rhode Island. It examines the regulatory climate for coastal redevelopment through state implementation of the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Clean Water Act, the state's brownfield program, and local development policies and ordinances. The analysis identifies 11 policy lessons to support development patterns that provide better economic, environmental, and community outcomes.
- Highlights of Policy Lessons from the Coastal Brownfield Development of Fields Point in Providence, RI, is an abridged version of the regulatory climate analysis for redeveloping coastal brownfields in Rhode Island, focusing on policy lessons learned from the project.