On Tuesday, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council unanimously approved an incomplete dredging application for Watch Hill Cove, despite public opposition from shoreline access advocates who faulted the proposal for failing to disclose a town-designated right-of-way that will be obstructed while the work is being done.
State regulations say dredging applications must disclose all streets and rights-of-way within 50 feet of a dredging area.
The application was submitted by the Watch Hill Yacht Club to help alleviate flooding in the area. The club will do the work in the waters around its boathouse and stage dredging equipment on land owned by the Watch Hill Fire District, which has given the yacht club written permission.
A public hearing and vote was held Tuesday night because of objections to the incomplete application, which had the support of the CRMC’s staff members who reviewed it. After the vote, advocates for shoreline access called the process dubious and accused the CRMC of applying a double standard to an application submitted by influential people from a wealthy shoreline area.
The Westerly Town Council had formally objected to the application’s failure to disclose the Fort Road right-of-way. In 2008, the Westerly Town Council designated Fort Road a public right-of-way that runs from a main road, along Watch Hill Cove and onto Napatree Point. The resolution bases the location on assessor plat maps.
“There’s a material omission in this application,” Anthony Palazzolo, Jr., a shoreline access advocate, said at the hearing. “It’s just like them, these Watch Hill interests, to omit critical information to game the system and have you approve things when you aren’t aware of concerns like this.”
Palazzolo said the application violated state law and town ordinance preventing people from blocking rights-of-way, encouraged pedestrians to cross over private property that’s not part of the Fort Road right-of-way to Napatree Point, and ignored a previous public access stipulation issued by the CRMC when it approved a sea wall application in the 1980s. He pointed out that no judge has ever invalidated the town-designated right-of-way and Westerly has never taken formal action to take back the public designation.
Palazzolo said he would be satisfied if the yacht club agreed to move its dredging staging area and the CRMC took steps to affirm what he thinks is the “viability and enforceability” of the public access stipulation to Napatree Point issued by the CRMC nearly 40 years ago.
A spokesperson for the CRMC contacted by email Thursday morning did not provide a comment for this story prior to deadline.
During the meeting, an engineer for the CRMC, Justin Skenyon, did not contest that the application omitted Fort Road but said staff members did not see a reason for rejecting the application. He noted that Fort Road is actively being litigated in Rhode Island Superior Court and the CRMC is not a party in that case.
The Watch Hill Fire District and the Watch Hill Conservancy have filed a lawsuit against the town of Westerly and state of Rhode Island, arguing the public does not have the legal right to use the access path and asking a judge to invalidate the right-of-way. The fire district says it does not intend to block the public from getting to Napatree Point but is asserting its property rights to protect the coastal environment. The fire district owns most of Napatree Point, although the town and state also own property on the undeveloped peninsula.
Skenyon said CRMC staff members determined the public will have adequate alternative access during the two-to-four-week dredging period.
“It’s staff’s opinion that this application adequately addresses requirements of [the] Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Program,” Skenyon said.
One Westerly Town Councilor, Joy Cordio, spoke at the meeting. She asked the CRMC to delay its vote because Fort Road is being litigated and the town’s solicitor wasn’t present at the CRMC meeting to speak for the town.
When asked by the council, Skenyon said his opinion was unchanged after hearing the concerns of shoreline access advocates. The CRMC’s legal counsel, Anthony DeSisto, pushed back on arguments raised by Palazzolo.
An attorney for the yacht club, Joshua Parks, told the CRMC the objectors were raising concerns about an issue that was not relevant to the dredging proposal.
“We’re not here on an application concerning Fort Road,” Parks said. “We’re here on an application to conduct maintenance dredging in much the same course and fashion as has been happening at this property, at this site, in the same manner for the past approximately 40 years.”
The council voted 7-0 in favor of the application. Member Don Gomez said the concerns raised by activists were not significant enough to require the CRMC to turn down the incomplete application.
“I just don’t see an impact. Anybody that’s going to be walking around down there at that point in time, I would think, would be perfectly happy to walk around,” Gomez said. “It seems to me we’re spending an awful lot of time trying to find fault with the presentation.”
The dredging work will likely be completed by the end of January 2025. The Watch Hill Yacht Club intends to deposit the sand it removes from the cove onto the Westerly Fire District beach after it’s had time to dry.
Earlier in Tuesday night’s meeting, the CRMC approved an application from the Watch Hill Fire District to repair split rail fencing on Napatree Point that access advocates also protested for ignoring the Fort Road right-of-way.
Westerly shoreline access advocate Ellen Kane said she viewed that application as consistent with Watch Hill’s “persistent attempt to erase Fort Road.” She pointed out to the CRMC that the Watch Hill Fire District had scrubbed references to Fort Road from its meeting minutes filed with the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Office.
“You have to wonder: Why is that being done?” Kane said. “I think it is part of a larger plan, because Fort Road is inconvenient to the fire district.”
