Champlin’s Marina files appeal in Superior Court

NARRAGANSETT – Despite the proposed expansion for Champlin’s Marina on Block Island getting shot down by the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council on Jan. 11, the marina’s lawyers are not giving up on what has been an eight-year fight.

According to the Block Island Times, Champlin’s Marina has filed an appeal in R.I. Superior Court asking it to reverse the CRMC decision on its application to expand 225 feet into the island’s Great Salt Pond.

The appeal asserts that Robert Ballou, an R.I. Department of Environmental Management representative who took part in the vote, was “improperly designated,” rendering the CRMC “improperly constituted” the night of the vote.

At the time of the vote, former DEM head W. Michael Sullivan had resigned to make way for the new director, Janet Coit. She had not yet been confirmed by the Rhode Island Senate, the Block Island Times said.

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The marina also argues that the CRMC “failed to give consideration to the recommendation of the subcommittee as statutorily required,” an argument which applies to both the expansion denial and also to the CRMC vote on Jan. 11 to require a 300-foot-wide fairway between Champlin’s Marina and the town’s nearby mooring field that effectively blocks any expansion by the marina in that direction.

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