In 2017, the City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Newport. The Comp Plan serves as Newport’s guiding policy document – this means that our ordinances and policies must be consistent with the goals established by our Comp Plan. The Planning Board uses the Comp Plan as a benchmark when considering new ordinances. When the pace of development in the North End of the City increased, it became apparent that the Comp Plan had gaps and did not meet the complex needs to develop that portion of the City successfully. To address those gaps and give the City the legal and policy tools to guide the next wave of development, the City crafted the North End Urban Plan, which has since been adopted as an additional chapter of the overall Comp Plan.
One of the notable gaps in the Comp Plan that the NEUP addresses is the lack of focus on equity in development. In the NEUP, equity is explicitly included as a theme and guiding principle. This explicit focus emerged at the very beginning of the project and allowed the plan to develop actionable strategies and policies to promote equitable development in the North End. The Planning Board recommended that the City take action to include this level of specificity and meaningful policy for equity in the Comp Plan so that every neighborhood is treated equitably in planning and development.
At the last City Council meeting, a resolution to develop new language addressing equity in the Comp Plan was voted down. The discussion in the meeting made clear that a majority of the council was not prepared to talk in specifics about how to move forward. The upcoming Council docket includes a different resolution with a similar goal, but I am concerned that its result will not reach the standard that our planning documents need and our residents deserve.
The American Planning Association clearly defines equity as:
“just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Unlocking the promise of the nation by unleashing the promise in us all.”
This week’s resolution uses inconsistent language, interchanging the specific term equity with the vague and colloquial term fairness. As the APA describes, equity is about more than fairness, and it needs to be woven into all City planning and policy in a clear, consistent, and enforceable way.
In their review of the Comp Plan, the Planning Board explicitly recommended that the City hire a consultant with expertise in developing equitable policy. Our Boards exist to advise the Council and we should not be dismissive of their recommendations. We owe it to the residents of Newport to engage with experts when developing amendments to the Comp Plan. The North End Urban Plan was successful in explicitly addressing equity because the consultants had experts on their team who understood the intersection of equity and public policy. We need to actively consider engaging similar experts to benefit the entire City in the Comp Plan.
I’m glad to see the conversation to formally incorporate equity into our planning is continuing from what started with the North End Urban Plan. It is important that the Council recognizes the need to continuously be working toward equity in our community. Equity is not something that can be accomplished with a single vote. I am committed to championing the needs of our community and working to ensure that the Council incorporates equity into everything we do.