From Food to Fitness, NK is Preparing a Plan

“I live in a really nice neighborhood, but I feel trapped. I can’t leave without a car.”

That comment by a resident of Wickford Highlands summed up a common theme at the Sept. 21 of Healthy Places by Design, a to develop goals aimed at making North Kingstown a healthier community.

The initiative, which spans the next few months, is expected to produce recommendations that will be incorporated into a rewrite of the town’s comprehensive plan scheduled for 2013.

The comprehensive plan is a legally required document that governs future development, explained Nathan Kelly, a consultant with the environmental science and engineering firm Horsley Witten Group.
North Kingstown used about $70,000 of the $225,000 Healthy Places grant to hire Horsley Witten to assist with outreach and with rewriting the comprehensive plan.

The is receiving $100,000 from the grant to serve as a community partner. The town will use the rest to cover staff costs, including a new planner, Doug McLean.

Kelly reminded the 30 residents who took part in the kick-off meeting at Cold Spring Community Center of previous comprehensive plan elements designed to improve the environment. Those include a that features sidewalks, the and upcoming improvements to .

But the scope of Healthy Places by Design goes beyond walking and biking to include healthy food, neighborhoods and public spaces.

The citizens who turned out Wednesday evening had plenty to say on those subjects. Participants were randomly assigned to four working groups. Assisted by staff from the West Bay Y, each group took a turn at discussing the four elements of a healthy community and writing a vision statement on each element for North Kingstown.

Most said they like their own neighborhoods, but many said they do not necessarily feel connected to the rest of the town.

“I’ve heard about the Quonset Bike Path, but I don’t know where it is or how to get to it,” said one woman. Replied another, “For serious bikers that path is not long enough to make it worthwhile.”

When it came to healthy food, groups could list the local farmers’ markets, but not necessarily when they were open and how to find them. Pointing up the contradictions of modern gastronomy, at one point suggestions for healthy living were taped to the front of the center’s soda vending machine.

Participants listed a wide variety of public spaces – parks, historic sites, beaches, hiking trails – but kept running up against the question of making access easier and non-automotive. And, as Executive Director Karla Driscoll noted, increasing access by bicycles, for instance, should not alter neighborhoods’ traditional character.

The vision statements will be compiled and posted at the Healthy Design website.

“Tonight was about ideas and principles,” Kelly said at the conclusion. “Next we are going to get down to maps.”

Want to blend your own ideas about healthy design into the mix? Here are the upcoming sessions:

• Expanding Recreational and Active Living Opportunities, Wed., Oct. 5, 6 p.m.     
• Planning and Designing Mixed Use Centers, Wed., Oct. 12, 6 p.m.
• Making Our Community More Walkable and Bikeable, Wed. Oct. 19, 6 p.m.

The final step will be a weeklong planning event called a charette, Nov. 4 to 10.

To get the locations and register, or to get more information, contact Denise Kaplan, Healthy Places by Design YMCA Consultant, dkaplin@gpymca.org, 295-6501, or Doug McLean, Town of North Kingstown, dmclean@northkingstown.org, 294-3331