Tear down this wall
By Topher Hamblett, Rhode Island Current
Rhode Islanders, do not buy what Quidnessett Country Club is trying to sell you.
The fact is, the North Kingstown country club knowingly and flagrantly broke the law. Now, they are trying to change the rules by asking the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to downgrade protections for Narragansett Bay to keep their illegal wall.
Council members are not required to have expertise in coastal matters, yet seem willing to accommodate the country club despite the recommendations of CRMC’s professional staff to deny their request. In a Sept. 20 memo to the politically appointed council, CRMC’s staff warned of the “potential negative impacts to shoreline lateral access, coastal habitat and marine resources” of such a decision.
CRMC’s professional staff has also taken enforcement actions, including fines and requiring that Quidnessett remove its 600-foot-long rock wall and restore the shoreline and coastal habitats wrecked by the wall. It has been over 400 days since they were issued an order to remove the wall.
Meanwhile, the federal Army Corps of Engineers has issued a notice of violation against the club for illegally filling the intertidal zone of Narragansett Bay.
The country club’s response has been obfuscation and delay. The council, seemingly not bothered by Quidnessett’s response nor moved by the CRMC staff’s recommended denial of its request to weaken protections of bay waters, is giving the country club another bite at the regulatory apple by scheduling a second hearing on Oct. 22 for the club to present its case to the council.
Why would a country club knowingly violate laws that protect Narragansett Bay? In all likelihood, it is because they think, or know, that the politically appointed council is very open to giving politically connected players a pass on the rules or willing to bend the rules so much that they break.
The council appears to be playing along with Quidnessett’s cynical attempt to make itself a champion of protecting Narragansett Bay from climate change. The country club’s spokesperson also claims the state must “modernize its regulatory processes to ensure that resilient infrastructure can be built at the speed of climate change.”
The CRMC’s rules are designed to protect Narragansett Bay by ensuring that development along the coast is done in a way that protects the bay. Over the past decade, the club has made numerous attempts to win CRMC permits to protect its property. Those attempts failed because they did not comply with the rules that protect the bay and its shoreline. So, the club decided to break those rules.
If the council allows the country club’s illegal wall to stand and then approves a downgrade in protections for the bay, it will be complicit in the loss of shoreline access and bay habitats. It will send the message that, if you are politically connected, you are free to bend and break the rules.
This is a matter of protecting Narragansett Bay and the public’s access to its shores. It is a matter of deterring would-be lawbreakers from daring to do what Quidnessett Country Club has done. And it is a matter of fairness. The vast majority of coastal property owners comply with the rules. What are they supposed to think, or do, when the politically appointed, and unaccountable council makes exceptions for the heavy hitters?
Rhode Island has a strong coastal program, developed and administered by CRMC’s professional staff. But the politics behind this council is putting that program — and the coastal environment it is charged by law with protecting — at risk.
It doesn’t have to be this way. An unaccountable, politically appointed Council should not make decisions impacting the health of Narragansett Bay and our coasts. The General Assembly has the authority and responsibility to pass legislation that removes the politically appointed council from decision-making, allowing CRMC’s professional, expert staff to protect and manage Rhode Island’s coast without political influence. This simple, but significant, change can build badly-needed public trust in our coastal agency.
Rhode Islanders deserve a coastal agency that is transparent and accountable – one that makes decisions based on science and the rule of law. Rhode Islanders deserve an agency that is trusted and whose rules apply to everyone – and whose role as the state’s coastal experts is respected by all.
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