Champlin’s and CRMC mediate court case without town

Much of the island is reeling from the news that Champlin’s Marina and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Council may have done a run-around of the Town of New Shoreham and local conservation groups in working out a compromise on a marina expansion.
Champlin’s first applied to the CRMC back in 2003 to expand its marina on the Great Salt Pond by some three-to-four acres, including into areas that are considered “part of the public trust” and have town moorings, adding enough docks to accommodate 140 more boats. The town, joined by the Committee for the Great Salt Pond, the Block Island Land Trust, the Block Island Conservancy and the Conservation Law Foundation opposed the application, and the CRMC ultimately turned it down. What ensued was years of legal wrangling, with a decision finally handed down by the R.I. Superior Court in Feb. 2020, affirming the denial of the expansion by the CRMC.
Then, suddenly in October, Champlin’s appealed the decision to the R.I. Supreme Court, which agreed to take on the case. Evidently the town was asked if it would like to enter into mediation on the case, and chose not to – preferring to see it

Block Island Times – Read More>>