PROVIDENCE – The public is invited to attend and participate in a meeting on Thursday, October 5, at which the Department of Environmental Management will present the results of a project exploring creative land use techniques to accommodate new growth in Washington County communities and West Greenwich. The meeting will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Galanti Lounge at the University of Rhode Island library in Kingston.

DEM, on behalf of the Rural Lands Coalition, received a $100,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to assist the communities in exploring innovative land use techniques to accommodate new growth while minimizing impacts to the environment and community character. The land use techniques to be discussed will address issues such as creating new growth centers to avoid sprawl, encouraging village revitalization, transferring development rights, preserving meaningful open space as land is developed, and preventing strip commercial development.

Jan Reitsma, DEM Director, said, " We need proactive planning for the right kind of growth in the right places instead of reacting after the fact against growth." He commended the consultants and the group of stakeholders, which included community officials, planners, builders, realtors, farmers, landowners, and interested citizens for their work on the project.

Dodson Associates, the consultants for the project, titled the South County Technical Planning Assistance Project, will use planning scenarios to illustrate how parcels will look under conventional versus creative land use techniques. Other topics to be discussed include strategies to encourage the continuation of agriculture and forestry and how to more effectively evaluate environmental impacts of developments. In addition, South Kingstown Planning Director Tony Lachowicz will seek input on a draft flexible development ordinance that South Kingstown is proposing to implement.