New England Grassroots Environment Fund

Group Resources

Portsmouth Design Review Guidelines
No Target Lawn Sign Logo
Economic Impact Analysis: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers
Buy Local First Aquidneck Website
Big Box Toolkit
Hometown Advantage Website & Resources
Smart Growth Website

Group Details

Preserve Portsmouth’s mission is to preserve the quality of life in the rural town of Portsmouth (RI). The group’s goal is to prevent large big box stores from infiltrating the neighborhoods and to welcome businesses that are appropriate in size and scale. Preserve Portsmouth started as a classic NIMBY. In the small Aquidneck Island community, a group of 25 Portsmouth residents came together after learning that Target was trying to build a new store on a 16-acre lot of open space abutting Lawton Valley Reservoir. Within 4 days of the group forming, the founders had come up with a name for the group, a website, and a list of 100 supporters in the community.

Preserve Portsmouth has seen 2 big successes: First, the group won the fight in June 2007 against the construction of a 146,000 square foot Target on the open space abutting Lawton Valley Reservoir. More recently, at the Town Council Meeting, Monday, February 4th a size cap of 45,000 sq ft was passed.

The group, located in Porsmouth (RI), received its latest NEGEF grant in July 2008 to work on getting one lot in town rezoned from commercial to residential, which need a number of hours for an attorney, and to launch a Buy Local Aquidneck campaign. Learn more about the groups activities by watching the following video: