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Implementing the Aquidneck Island West Side Master Plan PROMOTING GROWTH CENTERS September 2006 Contents SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR SECTION THREE: WEST MAIN AND Charge to the team 4 PORTSMOUTH 40 CODDINGTON HIGHWAY CORRIDORS Aquidneck Island: Our shared vision 5 West Main Road 71 Trends 6 GROWTH CENTER: MIDDLETOWN Guiding Principles 72 New fiscal realities 9 Anchorage and Vanicek 44 • Access, circulation, and corridor design 72 Development in New England 9 Zoning code options 46 • Introduce a system of interconnected • New England’s tradition of vibrant • Anchorage and Vanicek sites 47 roads and parking 72 mixed-use waterfronts 10 • Land uses 48 • Develop and implement a vision for Keys to implementing the Aquidneck • Streets and roads 49 bicyle and pedestrian circulation Island vision 11 • Streetscape 50 in the corridor 73 • Density 11 • Parking 51 • Create sidewalks to support pedestrian- • Design makes the difference 12 • Open space 52 oriented retail and street-oriented Building community requires coordinated • Density 53 housing 73 effort 13 • Building types 54 • Stripe bicycle lanes if sufficient roadway right-of-way is available 74 SECTION TWO DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR • Provide on-street parking 74 GROWTH CENTER: PORTSMOUTH MIDDLETOWN 59 Transportation Management 75 Melville/Weaver Cove area 20 • Develop a transportation demand Zoning code options 22 GROWTH CENTER: NEWPORT management (TDM) plan 75 • Marina Village District 23 North End/Pell Bridge Area 64 • Create a shared-parking and parking- • Land uses 24 Current Draft Guidelines 65 management strategy 75 • Streets and roads 27 Options for Design Guidelines 65 • Interconnect parking and work toward • Streetscape 29 Form-based Zoning 68 a system of rear access lanes 77 • Parking 29 Putting the Pieces Together 77 • Open space 31 • Putting the pieces together (box) 78 • Density 33 Coddington/J.T. Connell Highways 78 • Building types 34 SECTION FOUR: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTING THE AQUIDNECK ISLAND VISION Protecting water resources 83 Redeveloping brownfield sites 87 Sustainable coastal developement 88 SECTION FIVE: NEXT STEPS Next steps for all three communities 93 Community-specific next steps 96 • Middletown 96 • Portsmouth 97 • Newport 97 SECTION SIX: APPENDICES The Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program 101 EPA Team 102 Zoning Toolbox 103 Online Informational Resources 106 Green Building Guidelines 107 Executive Summary n November 28, 2005, the West Main Road; the island’s most important As one of the first steps to begin implement- Aquidneck Island Planning Com- maritime industry site; six miles of undevel- ing the vision laid out in the West Side Master mission released The Aquidneck oped shoreline, a nearly unique undeveloped Plan, the Aquidneck Island Planning Com- Island West Side Master Plan, coastal resource in the state; and agricultural mission and Rhode Island Sea Grant applied Owhich was the result of years of public meet- and conservation land. The Navy is no longer to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ings, discussions, and visioning exercises with actively using several large parcels within the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance all the stakeholders associated with Aquidneck West Side project area, leaving the potential Program to help them develop options and Island’s West Side. The West Side Master Plan for disposition of this land for development. tools for achieving the West Side Master Plan was produced by a broad stakeholder coali- The overarching goals of the plan are to: visions for their communities. The EPA Team tion including the Aquidneck Island Planning • ensure a livable landscape; consisted of representatives from EPA’s Of- Commission, the communities of Portsmouth, • enhance social well-being; fice of Policy, Economics, and Innovation, ICF Middletown and Newport, Rhode Island, Rhode • ensure a strong local economy; Consulting and Goody Clancy. This report Island Sea Grant, Rhode Island State Wide • support multiple modes of transportation summarizes their findings and presents op- Planning Program, Rhode Island Department tions developed for each of the communities. of Transportation, and Newport County Cham- The West Side Master Plan offers a variety of The EPA Team’s discussions with town and ber of Commerce. The purpose of the docu- growth-shaping strategies that reflect many city planning staff, municipal board and com- ment is to support important, common inter- smart growth principles. Among the hun- mission members and the AIPC staff resulted ests in shaping the future of the West Side. dreds of recommendations are concepts for in a consensus that the most useful assistance promoting high-quality redevelopment for under this project would be zoning options for Stretching from Newport Harbor north to commercial and mixed-use areas, retaining mixed use development and design review. The the Mount Hope Bridge, the West Side of and enhancing open space, and preserving AIPC and the three communities asked the EPA Aquidneck Island on Rhode Island’s Narra- agricultural lands. The West Side Master Plan Team to focus on specific areas in each com- gansett Bay encompasses 5,000 acres in three suggests some regulatory tools that may be munity that were identified in the West Side island communities, including the 1,500-acre adopted to achieve specific goals; it does not, Master Plan as appropriate for development Naval Station Newport; the island’s most im- however, provide the specific language needed into mixed-use centers and provide zoning op- portant arterial road and commercial corridor, for use in new codes and ordinances. tions to assist them in implementing the plan. ii | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | IMPLEMENTING THE AQUIDNECK ISLAND VISION The EPA Team developed approaches for The West Side of Aquidneck Island is a region mixed use zoning standards, design guide- rich with natural resources, strong communi- lines, and review processes in each of the ties, and an engaged population. In meetings three communities, including some site-spe- with residents, staff and officials it became cific options for future growth in the follow- clear that implementing the visions described ing locations: Melville/Weaver Cove area in in the West Side Master Plan is seen as a key Portsmouth; Anchorage and Vanicek sites in opportunity to enhance the existing island Middletown; and North End/Pell Bridge area character and help the communities to grow in Newport. Strategies to improve West Main in healthy, prosperous ways. Road corridor, shared by all three communi- ties, were also developed. For each of the sites, and for development review in general, the Team emphasized the importance of density, design and a mixture of uses to create the lively compact village centers envisioned by the West Side Master Plan: • Density creates a critical mass to support pedestrian-friendly environments and provide for affordable housing. • Design counts—for function as well as appearance. The secret to creating successful compact centers is to design higher-density uses to create human-scaled, interesting environments that put people first and find functional but unobtrusive solutions to parking and service needs. • Diversity of land uses creates an environ- ment that is more than the sum of its parts because the mixture of uses—housing, shops, service businesses, restaurants, public parks and plazas, offices, and other employ- ment options—all interact to produce a dynamic place where people can accomplish many of their needs in close proximity. IMPLEMENTING THE AQUIDNECK ISLAND VISION | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | iii 1 Implementing the Aquidneck Island Vision: 2 Introduction 3 4 5 A new community-based vision for Aquidneck Island, growing out of the West Side Master Plan, sets the stage for the growth of new, livable neighborhoods and walkable streets. 2 | INTRODUCTION | IMPLEMENTING THE AQUIDNECK ISLAND VISION estled in the protected, deep The West Side of Aquidneck Island stretches (AIPC) and its three member municipalities, waters of Narragansett Bay, the from Newport Harbor north to the Mount Rhode Island Sea Grant, and other key three communities of Aquidneck Hope Bridge, encompassing 5,000 acres public and private organizations—launched Island have long been defined by in the three communities, including the a broad-based, participatory process in 1999 Nthe island’s distinctive geography and coastal 1,500-acre Naval Station; the island’s most to establish a common vision for the future environment. Founded in 1639, the City of important arterial road and commercial of the West Side. The result of a six-year Newport was one of the most successful corridor, West Main Road; Aquidneck Island planning process, the West Side ports in colonial America, sharing the island the island’s most important Master Plan provides strategies with the rural towns of Middletown and maritime industry site; six miles for future development of the Portsmouth. Newport’s exceptional harbor of undeveloped shoreline, nearly West Side and seeks to: attracted the US Navy—which established unique in Rhode Island; and a naval base and, in 1884, the Naval War agricultural and conservation • ensure a livable landscape College—and wealthy summer visitors during land. The Naval Station is by maximizing open space, the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century. entirely located on the West providing public access to A continuing Navy presence, tourism, a deep Side, accounting for nearly the shoreline, minimizing maritime tradition now most evident in the one-third of the

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