When it comes to planning, Kravitz raises bar
N.S. official earns Daniel Varin Award
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Town Administrator Gary Ezovski knew the town was getting a good town planner when Tom Kravitz joined the planning department in December of 2016, and that was only confirmed last week when Kravitz received the first Daniel Varin Award, given by the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).
The late Daniel Varin was a former state director of planning, retiring in 1996, and helped to write many of the statewide planning rules in place today.
Kravitz had been town planner for Burrillville from October of 2011 until his move to North Smithfield, and had played a key role in planning the redevelopment of the Stillwater Mill complex in Harrisville and the update to Pascoag’s downtown now being completed.
It was Kravitz’s work in Burrillville that was largely behind his receipt of the Varin Award at the Rhode Island Chapter of the APA’s annual awards ceremony held in the Break Time Bowl and Pub at the Hope Artiste Village, 999 Main St., Pawtucket, last Thursday.
“I couldn’t be happier. Tom is an outstanding resource in every way and understands the planning process and understands how to manage the planning process,” Ezovski said.
Although honored for his professionalism in planning and consistent success, Ezovski said much of the recognition had to do with his supervision of the planning of the Stillwater Mill and Main Street, Pascoag, redevelopment in Burrillville.
Kravitz’s strength in planning, Ezovski said, is his ability to look at a development project with an all encompassing view. “Tom is not someone who looks at something and says ‘how many trees can we save,’ or says `let’s pave every foot.” Ezovski said.
“He looks at things toward maintaining balance. We want to grow and we want to manage that growth in a productive way,” Ezovski said.
That focus is apparent in the work he completed in Burrillville with both redevelopment of the old Stillwater Mill in Harrisville, where a new home for the town’s Jesse M. Smith Library was created, and also in Pascoag, where mixed-use development and related grant and funding incentives were used to revital- ize an aging and declining business district, according to Ezovski.
“I told people when Tom was engaged and hired that we were clearly successful in bringing in one of the best planners in the state if not the best,” Ezovski said.
Kravitz said on Friday he felt getting the Varin Award was a “pretty humbling” experience. Not only was Varin well-known for his work in Rhode Island planning but with the award created after his death last year, it was the first time it has ever been given to someone, he noted.
“He accomplished a lot during his career, and for this to be the first one and for me to be thought of for it by my peers, that is very humbling,” Kravitz said.
The Stillwater Mill complex project and Pascoag’s Main Street probably did have something to do with his selection, but those projects were also a result of many other people supporting their development, Kravitz noted.
For Stillwater, Kravitz said members of the Planning Board, the various town councils considering proposals over the years, the zoning board, the redevelopment agency, town staff and department heads and even the project developers all had a hand in its success.
“We really put our heads down and chased a lot of grant money and we were able to do some master planning and public hearings that all helped out,” he said.
The initial phase of the redevelopment work obtained a $5 million Housing and Urban Development grant for the renovation of part of the complex as senior housing, and then additional funding was found to relocate the library to the complex and even help encourage business development there.
The last part of the project was the conversion of a long abandoned railroad bed into a bike path, a project that completed a long ago envisioned plan for a walking path along the route linking the Harrisville and Pascoag centers, Kravitz noted.
“To be able to rehabilitate this nice and beautiful route into some people can use all the time is really rewarding,” Kravitz said of the bike path project.
Since he moved on to North Smithfield, Kravitz said Burrillville has continued to carry out the redevelopment of Pascoag and the success of that project can be seen in how the new enterprises, a combina- tion of residential space in the upper levels of buildings and commercial or professional office spaces downstairs is breathing new life into the Main Street area while still keeping its traditional look and charm.
“When you look at the new construction in the area, you see it is the same scale and style of the village buildings dating back to the mid to late 1800s,” he said.
Since arriving in North Smithfield, Kravitz has been work on an in-house update of the town’s comprehensive plan with the rest of the planning staff and hopes to roll out a first draft of that work in the near future.
Looking ahead and guiding future development, after all, is what Varin contributed to the state during his many years of service, according to Kravitz.
“He was on the forefront of everything in planning and was one of the first people involved in establishing the land use laws for Rhode Island and we are viewed as a national model for the country,” Kravitz said.
In addition to Kravitz, the planning association also honored former Director of State Planning Kevin Flynn, with the APA’s President’s Award for his outstanding and dedicated service to planning in Rhode Island.