CRMC offers special training for RI Builders Association

July 31, 2025, WAKEFIELD – The RI Coastal Resources Management Council recently offered a customized training module for the Rhode Island Builders Association (RIBA) to explain how the association and CRMC often intersect with regards to permitting.

The CRMC routinely offers educational presentations or instructional guidance for interested groups, industry members, citizens or schools. The RIBA worked with the CRMC on the development of this particular training module for their members.

This particular training included a “CRMC101” course which outlined basic foundational information on the CRMC, the Council’s areas of jurisdiction, its water type designations, defining coastal features and how they are identified, and information on and usage of the CRMC’s Coastal Hazard Analysis worksheet and viewer (https://www.crmc.ri.gov/coastalhazardapp.html ). The training also provided background on some of CRMC’s regulatory components including setbacks, buffers and buffer zones, the types of information needed on a variety of applications, stormwater requirements for an assortment of project types including commercial and industrial, estimated project cost, how to work best with CRMC staff throughout the application and review process and information about the process itself, permit/assent modifications, as well as Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSIs) and maintenance activities.

Training attendees also learned more about the overhauled CRMC and R.I. Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) freshwater wetland programs and regulations, as well as overlap activities between the two programs. The collaboration between CRMC’s and RIDEM’s programs regarding the Rhode Island Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES) programs was also discussed.

In addition to the practical application topics, the training also covered shoreline protection regulations and policies – structural and non-structural methods, what is allowed and prohibited and in what coastal areas. They learned about some of the pressing natural processes that affect CRMC’s daily policy creation and decision-making including sea level rise, erosion, and climate change, and how those themes are reflected in CRMC programs, policies and regulations.

For more information on CRMC jurisdictional topics, explore www.crmc.ri.gov and use the Topics dropdown menu, or the other topics like Aquaculture and Wind Energy. To arrange for an educational presentation or training, contact Laura Dwyer at ldwyer@crmc.ri.gov