Another Missed Deadline. Still No Plan for Restoring Quidnessett Country Club Shoreline

Two years of meetings, messages and multiple deadline extensions, and coastal regulators still await a plan from Quidnessett Country Club for how it will remove an illegal rock wall and restore its shoreline.

The Aug. 22 deadline to submit a restoration plan as required by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) came and went, Laura Dwyer, a CRMC spokesperson, confirmed via email on Tuesday.

Robin Main, an attorney for the North Kingstown Country Club, said the country club continues to work with coastal regulators on a “potential plan,” pending input from expert consultants.

“CRMC is aware of this,” Main said in an email on Tuesday. “Those involved in this process are also aware that vacations and other time constraints with some of the subject matter experts have come up during this time of year.”

The 600-foot-long rock wall built over the winter of 2023 violates state coastal restrictions for environmentally sensitive waters. The CRMC issued a cease-and-desist order on Aug. 21, 2023, followed by a series of warnings that included administrative fines. In January, the CRMC denied an initial request by the country club to seek retroactive permission for the wall.

But agreement on how to restore the shoreline, including the location and slope of the natural “toe of berm” barrier between the water’s edge and the adjacent golf course, continues to prove elusive.

Faced with a July lawsuit alleging the CRMC flouted its own rules during the review process, the council agreed to give Quidnessett another extension, with Aug. 22 as the deadline. The coastal panel previously authorized extra time for the country club to turn in the restoration plan, following months of back and forth and several proposals from Quidnessett that coastal administrators deemed unacceptable.

The CRMC wants the toe of the berm to be steeper and closer to land, replicating plans approved in 2013 for similar natural barrier protections. But Quidnessett insists on a more gradual incline closer to the shoreline in order to avoid infringing on its signature golf course.

At the CRMC’s most recent, July 22 meeting, Jennifer Cervenka, another attorney representing Quidnessett, pitched coastal regulators on a tentative compromise using synthetic, sandbag-like structures linked together along the shoreline. Cervenka, who previously chaired the CRMC, asked for more time to submit a thorough proposal.

However, coastal staff already indicated the idea, which would use geotextile products from a Florida-based company, Trapbag, failed to meet state coastal requirements for sensitive habitats because the material was not biodegradable.

Now that Quidnessett has missed its latest deadline, it falls to the council to decide whether to grant another extension or crack down on its two-year-old cease-and-desist order: imposing administrative fines, or forcing the wall’s removal.

Save the Bay posted a video on social media Monday calling for the council to take action.

“The council has given Quidnessett multiple extensions that continue to result in multiple harms being caused by keeping this rock wall in place, including impairing public access and harming local habitats like the beach and the salt marsh,” Chris Dodge, Narragansett Baykeeper for Save the Bay, said in the video. “It’s been far too long this rock wall has been in place and it’s time to get this wall down now.”

The council was scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting was canceled after an hourlong wait because not enough council members showed up to meet the six-person quorum requirement.

Even if they had, the original agenda did not include any items related to Quidnessett — a surprise to Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay.

“I expected to see it on the agenda,” Thorp said in an interview Tuesday. “They now essentially have at least a 45-day, if not more, extension. It’s yet the latest example of further delay.”

Council member Kevin Flynn said in an interview Tuesday afternoon he intended to ask for an update on the rock wall if it was not brought up at the meeting. Flynn already voiced reluctance with giving Quidnessett an extension at the council’s July 22 meeting, though he voted in favor of the extra time.

Flynn declined to comment when asked Tuesday if he regretted his decision now that the country club missed the deadline. However, he noted the importance of being thorough to avoid litigation.

“The council is probably concerned about what the reaction of a court would be,” he said. “Rather than taking action that a court might find to be too hasty or unacceptable, they’re maybe erring on the side of caution so that doesn’t happen.”

The CRMC has been forced to revisit several of its prior, controversial decisions after court rulings declaring the council ran afoul of its own rules, including a controversial expansion of Champlin’s Marina on Block Island, tossed by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 2022. Also in 2022, a Providence County Superior Court judge tossed a four-year-old council decision rejecting a proposed oyster farm in Barrington on the grounds that the council failed to allow the applicant to cross-examine project opponents. Forced to revisit the application anew in 2023, the council approved the oyster farm proposed in upper Narragansett Bay.

Earlier this year, a state judge ordered the council to take a fresh look at a 2020 decision authorizing the expansion of a Jamestown boatyard. The CRMC has yet to reconsider the case.

Quidnessett’s July 9 administrative appeal, filed in Providence County Superior Court, asks a judge to toss the council’s June 10 enforcement order or refer the case back to an agency hearing officer, whose job is to review contested cases. The CRMC had not filed a response as of Tuesday, according to court records.

This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.