People may think of building affordable housing and protecting land from development as distinct undertakings, but Rhode Island is trying to do both at the same time.
The two houses of the state legislature recently approved a bill reviving a commission that can direct money to both housing and land conservation projects. The group, whose members will be appointed by the state governor, are expected to prioritize developments that result in both housing and land protection. The state ranked last in the United States in terms of its pace of housing development, according to U.S. Census data collected from April 2020 through July 2023.
Rhode Island got the idea for its commission from Vermont, which launched a similar initiative in 1987, producing 15,000 affordable homes and conserved almost a half million acres of land, according to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board's website. Although Rhode Island started its own commission three years later, none of the state’s governors over the ensuing 35 years ever appointed members to serve on it.
The current bill calls for the governor to appoint 15 members from a variety of housing and environmental interests to the commission by the end of 2026. They include representatives for family farmers, small and large towns and cities, private developers and historic preservation, among others.
State Sen. Jacob Bissaillon, a Democrat of Providence, who sponsored the bill, said in a May statement that the commission is important because everyone deserves affordable housing and access to green space. The legislation drew the support of a variety of housing and conservation groups from around the state.
“At its core, this bill is about balance — ensuring that Rhode Islanders have both a healthy and affordable place to live, and access to the open spaces that make communities healthy, vibrant and resilient,” Rhode Island Land Trust Council executive director Kate Sayles said in the senator’s statement.
The legislature didn’t allocate any funding for the commission in the bill but authorized it to look for federal funding and private grants and loans to use for housing and land protection. Half of the homes in any development the group supports have to be priced for low- and moderate-income households. These homes have to remain affordably priced for at least 99 years, and the commission will have first right of refusal to buy one of the properties if it hits the market.
Thirty-five percent of the group’s funds can go to housing, another 35% to conservation, and the rest for either type of project. Sayles told Homes.com that money the group collects could be used for homeownership or rental opportunities.
There wasn’t necessarily opposition to the commission in the past, but people disagreed over how it should be funded, Sayles said. Housing and conservation groups tried without success to get legislators to approve a transfer tax on real estate sales to fund the commission, according to a 2006 state report.
Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island, said in the statement that the legislation provides an opening for a new way of thinking about how fans of housing and land conservation can meet their goals together.
“Too often decision makers have been forced to choose between investing in equally important but competing priorities,” she said.