In accordance with notice of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council’s Planning & Procedures subcommittee, a meeting was held on Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at 4:30pm at the offices of the Cervenka Green & Ducharme LLC, 235 Promenade Street, Suite 475, Providence, RI.

MEMBERS PRESENT
Jennifer Cervenka, Chair
Donald Gomez
Angelo Liberti, DEM representative

STAFF PRESENT
Jeff Willis, Deputy Director

 

Call to Order. Ms. Cervenka called the subcommittee meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.

Ms. Cervenka called for a motion to approve the minutes of the May 28, 2019 subcommittee meeting.

Mr. Gomez seconded by Ms. Cervenka moved to approve the meeting minutes of May 28, 2019. All voted in favor of the motion.

J. Willis stated that legal counsel raised an issue regarding the notice for the subcommittee meeting of August 27, 2019, and recommended the matters addressed and voted on at that meeting be re-adopted and ratified. Mr. Willis then presented the following minutes from the August 27, 2019 meeting.

Item 4.A.1 – 650-RICR-10-00-1 Management Procedures. G. Fugate and J. Boyd explained the revisions proposed to the operational regulations of the Council (ie: the Management Procedures) and which were originally presented to staff by Save the Bay. Each explained that staff has reviewed the Save the Bay proposal. The revisions under consideration at this time are those recommended by staff.

Ms. Cervenka noted the revision to section 1.2.G is a worthy one and offered sentence construction changes, with which the subcommittee agreed.

Mr. DeSisto noted that the sections 1.3.E & F are redundant to that contained in section 1.8 and should be stricken, with which the subcommittee agreed.

G. Fugate noted that the suggested deletion at section 1.4.7.A.2(a) should be returned as these considerations are necessary to implementing the section, with which the subcommittee agreed.

Ms. Cervenka, G. Fugate, A. DeSisto each noted that the terms which reference “contested case(s)” in sections 1.8.B.1 & 2 should be stricken as the requirements of this section pertain to all decisions of the council, with which the subcommittee agreed.

The remaining proposed revisions were all accepted by the subcommittee.

Mr. Gomez, seconded by Ms. Cervenka, moved to begin rule-making with the proposed regulations as amended by the subcommittee. All voted in favor of the motion.

Item 4.B.1 – 650-RICR-20-00-1 Redbook Section 1.1.2(45) Definitions. G. Fugate, J. Willis and J. Boyd explained the proposed revision, which was requested by the Town of Bristol, thus: The Town is seeking to have Bristol Harbor be defined within the RICRMP as a Destination Harbor, which would relax some regulatory requirements for marinas, such as parking. The Town offered statistics on transient dock and mooring fees over several years, as well as narrative on harbor use. Mr. Gomez questioned the information provided as lacking in sufficient detail and rationale and asked staff if it could contact the Town for more conclusive data/information on the request. Absent that Mr. Gomez and Ms. Cervenka did not feel enough clarifying information was provided to recommend the regulation change.

Mr. Gomez, seconded by Ms. Cervenka, moved to defer changes to the proposed regulation revision and directed staff to work with Town of Bristol on securing additional information for such. All voted in favor of the motion.

Item 7.A – RICRMP Revisions as Proposed by Save the Bay. J. Boyd explained that Save the Bay also has provided staff with proposed revisions to the Redbook that staff currently has under review. J. Boyd noted that the proposed revisions encompass the entirety of the program and are extensive. Further staff has since met with the lead staff at Save the Bay to discuss the proposal and get a better understanding of the proposed changes. Staff will report back to the subcommittee upon final review with possible recommendations that may come out of such a review.

Ms. Cervenka, Mr. Gomez and Mr. Liberti agreed the minutes were a true and accurate description of what occurred at the meeting on August 27, 2019. None of the Subcommittee members present felt the need to further discuss the topics addressed at that meeting.

Mr. Gomez, seconded by Ms. Cervenka, moved to adopt and ratify the two votes taken at the meeting on the 27th as official actions of the Subcommittee. All voted in favor of the motion.

ADJOURNMENT. Mr. Gomez, seconded by Ms. Cervenka, moved to adjourn. All voted in favor of the motion and the meeting was adjourned at 4:51 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted by

Jeffrey M Willis, Deputy Director

 

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