Rhode Island Current — CRMC gives Quidnessett another 30 days to submit shoreline restoration plan
Jennifer Cervenka, an attorney for Quidnessett Country Club, told the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, that her client still seeks to reach agreement on an acceptable restoration plan. Cervenka formerly chaired the CRMC. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
July 22, 2025
By Nancy Lavin — Extension comes after North Kingstown country club appeals decision in Superior Court
State coastal regulators are giving the embattled Quidnessett Country Club another chance to submit a required shoreline restoration plan after it opted to sue rather than meet a July 10 deadline.
The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council’s unanimous vote Tuesday night honors a request by attorneys for the North Kingstown country club for an extra 30 days to submit its restoration plan linked to the removal of an illegal rock wall. The country club built the wall without permission in the winter of 2023 to shield its golf course’s 14th hole from rising sea waters.
Debate over the 600-foot-long rock wall, which violates state coastal restrictions for environmentally sensitive waters, has lasted 694 days, based on the Aug. 21, 2023 cease and desist order handed down by CRMC staff. In January, the CRMC denied an initial request by the country club to seek retroactive permission for the 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 to be steeper and closer to land, following plans approved in 2013 for similar natural barrier protections. But Quidnessett has pushed for a more gradual incline closer to the shoreline in order to avoid infringing on its signature golf course.
Jennifer Cervenka, an attorney for Quidnessett who formerly chaired the CRMC, told council members Tuesday that the club still seeks to reach agreement on an acceptable restoration plan, despite its July 9 lawsuit against the appointed coastal panel and its agency director. The administrative appeal filed in Rhode Island Superior Court claims the council flouted its own rules in refusing to refer the dispute over the plan to a staff hearing officer. The council voted at its June 10 meeting to mandate the club turn in a restoration plan within 30 days.
Anthony DeSisto, an attorney for the CRMC, said the legal appeal does not preclude coastal regulators from taking further action, since a judge has not yet heard the case.
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