State coastal regulators had some bad news this week for the North Kingstown country club that’s trying to get permission to construct a seawall where it’s already built one illegally. A subcommittee of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council voted Tuesday to deny the waterfront classification change sought by Quidnessett Country Club. The final decision now goes to the full CRMC.
The Public’s Radio’s Luis Hernandez spoke with Rhode Island Current reporter Nancy Lavin about the latest developments in this ongoing story.
Interview Highlights:
On why environmental advocates are upset with Quidnessett Country Club and CRMC
Nancy Lavin: With Quinessett, they knew about this rule. They did whatever they wanted to do anyway, illegally, and are now coming in to sort of ask retroactive permission. The bigger beef is with the CRMC for seemingly, prior to this week, kowtowing to another private developer. They’ve been seen to sort of protect the interests of certain residents or business owners over others, and so by prolonging this case – by not requiring that Quinesset take down the illegal seawall already – there is a lot of frustration that this is just another example of the council being manipulated by or allowing itself to sort of be manipulated by a wealthy members only country club with a stack of lawyers and experts.
On whether the CRMC subcommittee vote provides any indication as to how the full CRMC council will vote
Lavin: Not necessarily. There have been times where the full council goes against the recommendation of its own subcommittee. Perry Raso, who owns Matunuck Oyster Bar, tried to expand his oyster farm in Potter Pond. That was a case that went on for years and years. The council ended up voting in a way that was different than what its own subcommittee recommended in that case. So it has been done. It could happen again. I think also very present in the minds of the council members is the prospect that this decision, if it doesn’t go in Quidnessett’s favor, is going to be appealed. The CRMC has had more and more of their decisions go to court by the people who aren’t happy with them.
On CRMC’s credibility
Lavin: To a certain group of people, every decision that the CRMC makes, they’re watching and considering in the context of Perry Raso’s oyster farm and these series of offshore wind projects, which prompted the entire voluntary fishing advisory panel to resign because they felt the CRMC was kowtowing to the wind industry. I think, though, for most of the public, this isn’t rising to the level of consciousness enough to sort of get their attention. The Quidnessett case is a little more high profile because there’s a 600-foot stonewall that you can see that’s not supposed to be there. It’s a little bit more concrete and tangible and I think that might have gotten more people’s attention.
On when the full CRMC make its decisions in the case
Lavin: I would say at the earliest, we’re going to see a decision in January. It’s also worth noting [that] even if the CRMC approves Quidnessett’s request to sort of downgrade the development restrictions, Quidnessett then has to submit a separate permit application to actually build or have a seawall there, which would be a separate review, separate public hearing, separate approval. The CRMC, through its regulatory administrators, is trying to get Quidnessett to take the wall down now anyway, because it’s not supposed to be there. So separately, there is this effort to get the wall taken down, and they’ve been asked to submit a plan for how they’re going to do that. They’ve had to have a couple of go-rounds because they were missing a lot of pieces in the first few times, but that is still kind of working through the process.
