By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
PROVIDENCE — If history is any indication, Rhode Island voters will approve Question 7 convincingly Nov. 4. The $53 million Clean Water, Open Space and Healthy Communities referendum follows a record of about 70 percent voter approval for such ballot questions.
This year’s ballot question, however, leaves out $4 million for green infrastructure and $3 million for the direct purchase of open space. Both items were requested in Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s proposed budget for 2015 but stripped out by the House Finance Committee.
The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) coordinates open space purchases with land trusts and foundations. DEM’s executive director, Janet Coit, said the $1 million remaining money from the 2012 open-space referendum will suffice for this year’s final round of open-space funding. After that only $40,000 remains for 2015 and 2016.
“We’re going to have to go for it next time,” Coit said after a recent Yes on 7 kickoff event. “So, it’s going to have to be a goal for me, for 2016.”
According to DEM, the $40,000 is for state land acquisitions. Without these funds, the state cannot qualify for federal land protection programs like the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. Other federal programs allow the DEM to defer the use of matching funds. The DEM is still determining the amount remaining for matching grants that fund local land acquisition. However, the agency expects to have sufficient funds to pay for local land purchases in 2015 and 2016.
A future bond referendum specifically for green infrastruucture is also a possibility, Coit said.
The Sept. 22 media event was held at Riverside Park, a former brownfield and high-crime area. Today, the park and neighborhood are heralded as a successful public and private revitalization project.
Police Lt. Dean Isabella, who grew up in the neighborhood, said he once arrested a crack dealer and broke up a prostitution ring on the site. But during the past 20 years a 6-acre park was developed, and that investment was followed by a bike path, new housing and the opening of small grocery store. The population in the neighborhood increased 10-fold and calls to the Police Department dropped 90 percent, according to Isabella.
The issues, Isabella said, go beyond economic development and clean water. “They go to the fact of creating better lives for people that live in these neighborhoods," he said.
It’s not known yet how open-space acquisition will be funded in 2015 and 2016. Question 7 funds, however, provide money for farmland protection and finances several large education and clean-up projects:
- $9 million for a new tropical rainforest building at Roger Williams Park Zoo.
- $5 million for an education center at Roger Williams Park Zoo.
- $4 million for parks, athletic fields, playgrounds and tennis courts.
- $3 million for farmland acquisition.
- $20 million for upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities and stormwater systems.
- $5 million for brownfield restoration.
- $3 million for wetlands restoration.
Most of the funds are combined with matching grants or leveraged for additional funds.
Coit explained in an e-mail that other money pulled from the governor's referendum request were funded elsewhere in the state budget. The Rhode Island Capital Plan (RICAP) fund received $4 million for building and maintaining state piers. RICAP received more than $10 million through fiscal 2019 for large park facility projects.