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PROVIDENCE — For the roughly 40-strong gathering of concerned North Kingstown residents who showed up to Tuesday’s Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) meeting, it was a wasted drive up to the city.
The standing room only hearing, which was meant to address the application of MTM Investment Group LP and its proposal to construct a 210-foot dock bisecting the quarter-mile long Shore Acres beach off Sauga Avenue, was continued for another month to allow engineers time to take another look at minimum water depth regulations.
Several members of Save the Bay were also in attendance at the meeting to show their resistance to the dock’s development, which opponents say would damage the area’s scenic value, water quality and natural habitat.
The continuation was requested by MTM’s attorney, Turner Scott of the Newport firm Miller, Scott and Holbrook, after Scott explained to the committee that he did not have adequate time to have engineers re-measure water depths, as he was on vacation when the notice to conduct additional testing was issued.
At Tuesday’s hearing, CRMC Executive Director Grover J. Fugate expressed remaining concerns that proper testing had not been completed to ensure that the 18-inch water depth variance had been met.
“One of the variances that the applicant sought was a minimum of 18-inch depth variance,” Fugate said. “Mr. Scott, I guess, when he discovered that the variance was necessary... asked the engineer to go out and re-measure the depth at the end of the dock to see whether that measurement was off.”
Although the measurement was taken, Fugate questioned its accuracy and asked that additional, more accurate methods of testing be used in the depth measurement. Therefore, the committee was unable to accept the engineer’s initial findings and a continuance was granted.
When Committee Chairman Michael M. Tikoian asked if there were members of the public who wished to speak on the subject of the proposed dock, several hands shot up.
After Tikoian announced that the hearing would be continued until next month’s meeting, residents voiced their disapproval, arguing that the applicant did not adequately notify the committee of his inability to secure the needed information.
“We’ve come far enough for this,” said resident Jill Muraski. “It should be heard.”
Tikoian told the heated crowd that council was not allowed to entertain comments until the matter is addressed before the council in 30 days.
Per request of the residents present, attorney Scott agreed to allow any interested parties to be present at re-measurement.
“I think I have the right measurement, however, I will say that if I do have the surveyor go back out and measure, if somebody will give me a contact point, I’ll call that individual and tell them when we’re going,” said Scott.
“It’s a beach, we use it as a beach, and a dock would inhibit beachers,” Muraski said as the local crowd filed out of the meeting.
Shore Acres, the beach in question, and one other state-funded beach adjacent to Shore Acres, would be affected by the dock. “It would literally cut it in half and it’s really one of the prettiest little beaches left in that area,” she said.
Sauga Avenue resident William H. King was skeptical that the beach’s waters reached a depth of the required 18 inches.
“I went out there on Jan. 5, a Saturday, I went out and stood at low tide, and there was 10 inches of water. It is, essentially, a tidal flat,” said King. “If this thing is approved, it would set a precedent that would allow 10 docks across that beach.”
The CRMC will revisit the issue on April 22 at the Narragansett Bay Commission headquarters in Providence.
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