The embattled Quidnessett Country Club is facing more scrutiny after failing to submit the required restoration plan of its shoreline to state coastal regulators by the July 10 deadline.
The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council is scheduled to revisit the matter at its upcoming July 22 meeting, according to a July 14 letter from agency staff to Jennifer Cervenka, one of Quidnessett’s attorneys. The letter was obtained by Rhode Island Current.
The letter does not specify whether the appointed council will take additional action, including new penalties, against the North Kingstown country club for an illegal seawall built along its shoreline more than two years ago. That will be up to the council to decide, Jeff Willis, executive director for the CRMC, said in an email.
Robin Main, another attorney representing Quidnessett, declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday.
The saga of the 600-foot-long rock wall built in defiance of state coastal regulations has become a flashpoint in ongoing debate over the effectiveness and fairness of the politically appointed state coastal panel. Critics condemned the council for a drawn-out review of Quidnessett’s case that so far, has had no consequences for the country club despite clear violations of state coastal requirements for sensitive waters. The CRMC issued a cease and desist to country club owners in August 2023 after discovering the seawall built along the edge of its golf course, sometime in the winter of the prior year.
Facing financial penalties, the country club owners originally sought to ease development restrictions by reclassifying the waters along its coastline. If granted, the request could have allowed a permanent barrier like a seawall. After a protracted review and series of contentious public hearings, the council rejected the water type reclassification in January. Since then, the club and agency staff have been unable to agree on details of a shoreline restoration plan, including the slope and location of a natural barrier between the water’s edge and adjacent golf course. Quidnessett submitted five plans to the CRMC, all deemed by staff as “unacceptable” based on state coastal regulations.
In June, the dispute returned before the appointed council, which finally set a timeline for the country club to remove the seawall and restore the shoreline. The council’s unanimous June 11 vote gave Quidnessett 30 days — until July 10 — to submit a new restoration plan, with another three months to perform the work after a plan was approved.
However, the council’s June vote failed to prescribe any details of what the forthcoming restoration work should entail, despite a recommendation from staff environmental scientist Brian Harrington laying out specific requirements for replantings and the location of the “toe of berm.”
Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay, was unsurprised to learn Quidnessett failed to turn in a new plan by the deadline, given the lack of clarity in the council’s prior order.
“The council should have known that without providing that specificity, we’d be back here in 30 days with no agreement reached,” Thorp said in an interview.
“Quidnessett was basically saying, ‘We need to be told what to do,’” Thorp said of what Cervenka said during the June 11 meeting. “Hopefully, the council responds in some way that provides clarity and more clearly directs them on what needs to be done.”
Thorp characterized the repeated delays and inaction by the council as further support for Save the Bay-backed bill that would have reshaped the CRMC as an administrative agency akin to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. The bill failed to advance out of committee in both chambers during the 2025 legislative session — the third consecutive year — though lawmakers agreed this year to a more modest tweak to the council’s size and members’ professional qualifications.
“If you had more of a DEM-style structure, this would have been resolved months ago,” Thorp said. “Instead, we’ve seen delay after delay after delay.”
The CRMC will next meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22, at the William E. Powers Department of Administration building in Providence. A meeting agenda has not yet been posted.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
