Coastal Communities & Ecosystems
Woonasquatucket River Management Plan Workshop
At the request of community stakeholders, the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) and the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) held a workshop to gain
public and professional input regarding a Woonasquatucket River
Management Plan. This plan will amend the Urban Coastal Greenway
Policy, which is part of the Metro Bay region Special Area Management Plan (SAMP). The Woonasquatucket planning effort will provide CRMC with
a guidance document for future permit applications for the area along the
Woonasquatucket River from the Providence Place Mall to Atwells
Avenue. More information on the SAMP may be found at http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/metrosamp/.
At the Feb. 9 workshop, participants identified special concerns, proposed new public access sites, made recommendations for improving existing sites, proposed strategies to address dredging and siltation, and provided information regarding vegetation management (including invasive species) and habitat restoration potential. The 40 experts around the table represented developers, municipal planners, the environmental community, and government agencies.
“We had a tremendous response from the community,” said Austin Becker, Rhode Island Sea Grant coastal management extension specialist, who organized the meeting, “the folks who attended this workshop have been deeply involved in many aspects of river management, from the drafting of visioning plans, to storm water management, to habitat management and on-the-ground river cleanup.”
The CRMC plan will provide clarity to developers and the city as projects along the banks move forward. It will also serve to identify priorities for restoration and public access. The plan will be accompanied by a set of illustrated hypothetical designs, developed by a URI landscape architecture senior design studio. Over the next few months, recommendations from the workshop will be synthesized and presented back to the workshop participants before being submitted for public comment and CRMC approval.
"Special Area Management Plans: A Powerful Tool for Planning in Urban Areas"by Malia Schwartz and Monica Allard Cox in the
latest issue off 41ºN.
Each one is unique, but special area management plans (SAMPs) share one thing in common: Each is a powerful strategic planning tool for coastal resource managers—in part because once approved, SAMPs have federal recognition, meaning that both the state and federal governments must abide by the plans.
The R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is recognized as a national leader in SAMP development. In developing SAMPs, the CRMC has brought about specific management strategies rooted in the council’s legislative mandate, which states that“...the preservation and restoration of ecological ecosystems shall be the primary guiding principle upon which environmental alteration of coastal resources will be measured, judged, and regulated” for a variety of areas within the state. Each selected coastal ecosystem has its own unique set of characteristics and problems.
The strategy of the SAMPs is to recognize how water quality, land use, habitat, storm hazards, and geology all interact on an ecosystem level to impact the health of an area. Coastal managers use SAMPs when the problems in a distinct area go beyond what can be addressed by existing local, state, and federal policies.
To read full article, visit http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/41N/Vol3No2/2_landuse.html.