Rhode Island Current — Quidnessett Country Club files suit against CRMC, alleging coastal panel broke its own rules
A man fishes along the shoreline immediately north of the illegal wall built by the Quidnessett Country Club in North Kingstown. Quidnessett filed a complaint on July 9, 2025, against the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council over disputed details of the shoreline restoration plan. (Photo courtesy of Save the Bay)
July 21, 2025
By Nancy Lavin — A dispute between state coastal regulators and Quidnessett Country Club has finally landed in court, with the North Kingstown country club filing an appeal in Rhode Island Superior Court on July 9 — one day before it was due to turn in a restoration plan for its coastline.
The lawsuit against the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) challenges the panel’s June 10 decision requiring Quidnessett to submit a plan to demolish a rock wall built during the winter of 2023 without permission along its shoreline and restore the coastal habitat back to its original state.
The country club was supposed to turn in a new restoration plan to coastal regulators by July 10 — the sixth iteration after five previous proposals were dubbed insufficient by agency staff. No plan was ever submitted. Quidnessett’s attorney, Jennifer Cervenka, who formerly chaired the CRMC, filed the appeal.
The CRMC is scheduled to discuss, and potentially take further enforcement action, against the country club, at its next meeting Tuesday night.
Debate over the 600-foot-long barrier, built in violation of state coastal restrictions for environmentally sensitive waters, has stretched out for nearly two years. In January, the CRMC denied an initial request by the country club to seek retroactive permission for the rock wall. But agreement over 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.
The CRMC wants the toe of berm situated closer to land, following plans approved in 2013 for similar natural barrier protections. But Quidnessett has pushed for a barrier closer to the shoreline in order to avoid infringing on the 14th hole of its signature golf course.
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