On March 15th, the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission (AIPC) conducted a Smart Island event to address housing issues on Aquidneck Island and chart an action agenda for moving forward as a region.

Conducted in partnership with HousingWorks RI and Fourth Economy, the event engaged over 150 Islanders and others in an interactive dialogue that allowed for a broad range of perspectives on issues such as workforce and family housing, affordable senior housing and the ability to age in community, the impacts of seasonal rentals, and integrated planning of open spaces, transportation, commercial development and other aspects that impact the livability of our communities.

Afternoon break-out sessions enabled smaller groups of participants to start to craft an action agenda for Aquidneck Island that would address our regional housing needs. A full report from the event with proceedings from all the presentations will be available soon, but in the interim the AIPC has embarked on the next stage of this process – working with its partners to distill a Housing Action Agenda for the Island based on participants’ input in the Housing Forum’s afternoon workshops.

This agenda will include how we will tell the story of housing for our future and how we will work together to plan, build, and most importantly: pay for it. AIPC is committed to engaging all stakeholders on the Island in this process.

Stay involved:

We invite you to join the discussion through our new Aquidneck Island Smart Housing Facebook Discussion Group. 

This group provides an opportunity to look to the future and work together, not simply to analyze the current housing situation. This is the first time we have organized an online forum of this nature – we are excited to see our community come together to create forward progress.

Please join in as we plan for a smart future for our community.