In the summer of 2010, Rhode Island officials will begin watching closely a new cross-cutting green development effort emerging from the state's use of stimulus Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-R) funds.
\r\nState officials are preparing to spend $200,000 of their $1.4 million in CDBG-R money on an arts and agriculture community called Sandywoods Farm, tucked away on the northeastern edge of Tiverton. The $15 million project is covered mostly by housing tax credit financing.
\r\nSandywoods Farm and developer Church Community Housing Corporation had a groundbreaking ceremony in late June, but Michael Tondra, the state's program analyst in the Office of Housing & Community Development, tells us that the effort is ripe for replication elsewhere should it succeed.
\r\nIt will contain 50 affordable housing units, who can expect to receive electrical power from a green source--a 100-kilowatt wind turbine engine. While the state's CDBG-R plans state that it will provide one-quarter of the electrical power to the units, Tondra says the estimate is very conservative.
\r\nTondra says that in addition to the green power source, there will be green-building techniques used to serve the low- and moderate-income residents living in the units. Microenterprises such as a farmer's market--using produce grown on a working farm covering more than 20 acres of the development--and art galleries are part of the effort as well, Tondra says. About two-dozen single-family homes are part of the development.
\r\nThe overall impact of the development involves a host of state offices outside of community development, Tondra says. The state energy office is interested in the turbine impact, while transportation and housing officials are interested in other aspects. All were involved in a committee that determined how the CDBG-R money as a whole would be spent.
\r\nTondra says the project works in dealing with sprawl, traffic congestion, pollution and workday travel.
\r\nInfo: Michael Tondra, program analyst, Rhode Island Office of Housing & Community Development, 401/222-2079
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