Save The Bay is accusing the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council of “political favoritism and abuse of power,” after the council repeatedly delayed a decision on the Quidnessett Country Club’s illegal seawall.
“The Council’s months-long series of delays gives the country club an unfair economic advantage over law-abiding coastal landowners and businesses who spend money and time applying for permits to comply with the law,” executive director Topher Hamblett wrote in a Monday letter to the politically appointed council.
The North Kingstown country club is seeking to change the classification of the coastline where the 600-foot seawall was built without regulators’ permission. The current designation does not allow seawalls at all, but the club argues that those rules need to be updated so that it can protect its historic golf course from erosion.
After the coastal council’s Planning and Procedures Subcommittee voted in September to give the country club another opportunity to present its case, chairman Raymond Coia told The Providence Journal that the meeting could take place as early as October.
However, the council later canceled the October meeting, saying that the country club had retained new legal counsel and requested more time.
A meeting that was scheduled to take place this week was also canceled, without explanation. In the past, CRMC meetings have often been canceled due to a lack of a quorum.
“Some scheduling issues arose which led to the meeting being postponed,” spokeswoman Laura Dwyer wrote in an email. “The matter has been scheduled for Dec. 10.”
Why Save The Bay is criticizing the delays
Save The Bay has called for the country club’s petition to be denied, saying that the wall should immediately be removed because it weakens the surrounding shoreline.
In his Monday letter, Hamblett said that the council “appears to be engaged in the well-known tactic of delay, which benefits a violator in attempting to circumvent those rules,” and noted that the seawall has now been in place for approximately 450 days.