Research park plotted for North Woods in question

04/23/09 - In the waning days of President Robert L. Carothers' administration, controversy concerning the construction of a research park in the University of Rhode Island's North Woods has begun to boil over. The university publicly announced plans to build a research park in the area in 2007.

The park would provide facilities for URI researchers and corporate partners to research and develop new technologies, as well as an alternative revenue stream for the funding of research, according to Carothers.

The state has been steadily decreasing university funding since he came to URI, Carothers said at last night's Student Senate meeting, "one of the results of that is that research enterprise at the University of Rhode Island has been starved."

Students and faculty have spoken in opposition to the plan on the grounds that it will destroy a valuable natural and educational resource.

Professors Keith Killingbeck and Francis Golet have spearheaded faculty opposition to development in the North Woods.

The planned site of the research park would infringe upon a 20- to 25-acre plot of almost 100-year-old trees, now known as "the century forest," they said.

According to a document prepared by Killingbeck and Golet, this particular patch of forest is used by 16 courses every year, including biology, botany, wildlife and soil conservation courses.

Killingbeck teaches two of these.

These courses include 1,200 to 1,300 students yearly, plus an unknown number of students participating in labs and independent research projects, Golet said.

Originally, plans for the park called for 21 acres, including two large parking garages and six research buildings.

Under a compromise proposed by the administration, the footprint of the park would be condensed to 11 acres, and 150 acres of forest would be set-aside in a preservation trust, said Vice President of Administration Robert Weygand.

But construction in the area would be damaging to the forest, Killingbeck said.

"Eleven acres doesn't sound like a lot of the total," he said. "But anytime you have any kind of development where there are buildings and cars the natural nature ... of the area is diminished significantly."

Compounding its educational value, the forest is unique in its proximity to the campus, Killingbeck told the senate.

While other similar forests exist in the state, none can be reached in the space of a 50-minute class, Killingbeck said.

In response to plans to develop the area, the two have recommended to the Faculty Senate that 85 acres be set aside for preservation as the "North Woods Natural Outdoor Laboratory."

The 85-acre plot covers the oldest section of the forest, including the "century forest."

Those opposed to the park's placement have suggested that it be constructed elsewhere in the woods or on another property entirely.

Carothers said the question is less where to construct the park than whether to construct it.

"The research park is a very high-risk project. It has a very high potential to fail," Carothers said in a telephone interview, citing URI's proximity to major research institutions and relatively small number of researchers.

"Under normal circumstances a reasonable person might conclude that building a research park is not a good idea," Carothers said. "However, we have a unique situation that might counteract that by having a brand new life sciences quadrangle under construction."

The partially-completed CELS Quadrangle, opposite the proposed site of the research park, includes the recently completed Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. Construction on a new pharmacy building is to begin later this month or the next, and a new chemistry building is in the design stage, Carothers said.

In order for the park to succeed it would have to be fully integrated into this complex, Carothers said.

"When people talk about building this somewhere else, my conclusion would be that it is better not to build it at all if you can't take advantage of that one particular option for us," he said.

Carothers dismissed a proposed site west of the woods on Flagg Road because it has too far from the campus and too close to the site of a former dump.

A second site, Peckham Farm on Route 138, is also too far and is likely to encounter opposition from farmland preservationists, Carothers said.

The project lacks funding at this time.

Originally, the university expected construction of the park to be financed by corporate partners, but it soon became evident that the university would have to finance the initial construction and then rent space out, Carothers said.

Senior Edward Azivinis is president of University Students for Sustainable Development, a coalition of students opposed to the development in the forest.

The group supports the idea of a research park, but is opposed to the destruction of the North Woods, Azivinis said in a February interview.

"We're just trying to get them to incorporate the forest into the whole development," he said.

In a more recent e-mail statement, Azivinis expressed frustration with the administration.

"The administration is acting very irresponsibly in a time when the university cannot afford anymore risky business ventures like the cash hemorrhaging Ryan Center," Azivinis wrote.

The Faculty Senate voted at its last meeting to form an ad-hoc advisory committee to consider plans for the park's placement.

Carothers will make the final decision on the park in mid-May after the Faculty Senate submits its recommendation, he said.