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Analysis

click map to enlarge — large file (~100k)

This table shows the number of parcels identified as culturally significant in this inventory that are protected from development by state, local, or private organizations. Data from the Village Inventory is limited to Peace Dale, Wakefield, and Kingston.

The disparity between protected parcels and protected acres is interesting. It could be the result of previous bias toward protecting large, undeveloped parcels in systems that prioritize natural resources and recreational use of open space. While it is not always necessary to purchase parcels in order to protect their cultural value, this analysis shows the increase in the overall number of parcels implicated in a cultural inventory. This trend is likely to continue with completion of the Inventory with data from the eight other districts in the Village Inventory.

In addition, much of the protected open space in South Kingstown is located in rural areas of town — primarily the farms south of Route 1 and the Great Swamp. Since protection of village character may not involve acquiring parcels (especially those that are already built out), other management options will need to be explored.

Co-occurring Cultural Designation

click map to enlarge — large file (~100k)

The primary purpose of this map is to locate parcels that have been identified as culturally significant in multiple studies. There are several problems with this analysis. Cultural studies often build on one another. For example, in both the Scenic Byways inventory and the Landscape Inventory, one of the selection criteria was the presence of designated National Register sites. In this study, National Register properties are also coded as culturally significant. Thus, the results of cultural inventories tend to reinforce one another. The second main problem is that only one of these studies is based on local knowledge while the rest are expert derived. If there is a significant difference

in the priorities of experts and citizens, a ranking system such as this that prioritizes cultural resources based on frequency would tend to favor expert identified resources. In the case of South Kingstown, this appears unlikely as there is significant overlap between the Village Inventory and the other data sources.

Finally, there is a significant difference between the cultural score (number of cultural designations) in parcels protected as open space and unprotected parcels. An average parcel in town has .34 cultural designations, while a parcel protected as open space scores .63. This is to be expected since open space acquisition strategies often give weight to cultural resources. The average score of culturally significant parcels alone is 1.42. While all scores will change when the Village Inventory coding is complete, this shows the tendency for cultural resources to occur in protected open space even under the current acquisition regime. A detailed analysis of the tendency for all resources to co-occur on individual parcels is presented in Charlestown at Buildout.