03/14/09 - Three environmental organizations — the Committee for the Great Salt Pond, the Block Island Land Trust and the Conservation Law Foundation — will join the town to challenge the Superior Court ruling allowing an expansion of Champlin’s Marina.

Judge Netti Vogel granted the expansion on February 24, reversing a Coastal Resources Management Council denial reached two years ago in a 5-5 vote. The ruling allows the marina to expand by 3.08-acres, as recommended by a CRMC subcommittee.

Vogel’s decision came after the marina appealed the denial. She decided that three CRMC members should not have voted because of bias and communication off the record.

The CGSP, Land Trust and the CLF have worked to block the expansion since the marina first floated a 4-acre proposal almost six years ago.

CGSP President Corrie Heinz said the eight-member board was unified in its decision to petition the state Supreme Court on the matter. The committee has already spent approximately $150,000 in its effort against the expansion. Heinz says it has enough money to get the ball rolling on an appeal, but plans to approach the public for further financial help.

Land Trust President Barbara MacMullan confirmed that her organization would also continue to fight the expansion. The group made the decision Monday at its monthly meeting. MacMullan said the trust would also pursue a concerted fund-raising effort with the other objectors.

CLF lawyer Jerry Elmer said, “CLF is definitely appealing the Superior Court ruling. The case of Champlin’s Marina is not over yet, not by a long shot.”

The lawyer team of R. Daniel Prentiss, town attorney Don Packer and Elmer will continue to work in tandem to push for an appeal before the state’s highest court.

Since 2006 the Land Trust has shared the legal costs for Prentiss with the committee and the town. Of the $117,500 paid to Prentiss since 2006, the Land Trust paid $44,300; the trust also paid half of a $57,000 consultant fee shared with the committee in 2004.

Before 2006 the trust relied on its lawyer Joe Priestley to handle the Champlin’s matter as part of his other work.

The town has spent $60,473 in legal fees related to Champlin’s since 2006. Before that the town’s solicitors handled the marina matter with their other work.

The Block Island Conservancy, which has been a named party to the various legal actions against the expansion, will convene Saturday to discuss its future role in the matter.

As of press time the final order for Vogel’s decision had not been signed. As soon as it is, the groups will have 20 days to file writs of certiorari with the state Supreme Court. Such appeals are discretionary, which means the groups must wait and see if the court will entertain the appeal.

Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg would recuse if the case ever came before the court, according to her husband Robert Goldberg, attorney for Champlin’s.

Army Corps in the wings

Regardless of what the CRMC or the courts say, there is yet another regulatory agency that could have the final say on any expansion: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Mike Elliot, project manager for the corps, confirmed it “would have to be convinced [an expansion is] not against the public interest to issue a permit.” If the corps is not convinced, “they could not build it,” he said.

To date the federal agency has only seen the original application for a 4-acre expansion pushing 240 feet farther into the pond, says Elliot. The corps considered that proposal “unsafe” vis-à-vis the navigation fairways and the location of the town mooring field.

As far as the slightly smaller 3-acre expansion granted by Vogel, Elliot says the corps has seen no official application asking for it.

While he acknowledged that the CRMC has done most of the work on the Champlin’s matter, the corps still doesn’t necessarily “follow lock-step” behind the findings of state agencies.

In an aside, Elliot said that in his experience, discussing technical matters with decision-makers has been an essential tool to help fashion the best solutions. He was surprised that one of the tenets of Vogel’s decision was that CRMC staff should not have spoken to the decision-makers about the technical aspects of the proposed expansion.

Town to lose $100k?

Sometimes lost in the Champlin’s discussion is the status of the town’s Harbor Management Plan.

An updated version of the town’s HMP went to the CRMC in 1999 and languished there without approval. The CRMC then consolidated the plan with the Champlin’s expansion application — the rationale being that an expansion would affect the town mooring field E, placed 365 feet from the current Champlin’s docks.

According to Harbormaster Chris Willi, the CRMC has granted “interim approval” to the town’s HMP, since the status of mooring field E remains in flux due to the Champlin’s matter.

Willi said that if the expansion were to happen, the implications for the town include the potential loss of 30 moorings. Over the span of a summer, Willi said that could translate to as much as $100,000 in lost revenue for the town if it could not relocate the moorings.

The town maintains 90 rental moorings on the Great Salt Pond; it has a permit for 100.

But Willi said there is only a finite amount of room in the pond, and trying to relocate 30 moorings would be difficult and could potentially affect the private moorings.

“All the mooring fields will have to be looked at closely,” Willi said.

Extra: Read Judge Vogel's decision