In unusual vote, CRMC defers to experts in Matunuck Oyster Bar farm expansion

Something unusual happened when the Coastal Resources Management Council met on Tuesday night to vote on Matunuck Oyster Bar owner Perry Raso's controversial request to expand his shellfish-growing operation.

The council neither approved nor denied the application — but instead asked agency staff to review a scaled-down version of Raso's original proposal.

That's notable because the politically appointed council has repeatedly faced criticism for overruling the recommendations of the CRMC's highly respected staff. Unlike full-time staff at the agency, council members are not required to have a background in science or coastal issues, and some lawmakers have argued that the council should be abolished.

On Tuesday, however, the council deferred to the experts.

"We’re not talking about changing the contours of this desk," Catherine Robinson Hall, a newly appointed member, said during Tuesday's meeting. "We’re talking about a marine environment that has a lot of variables that I'm not sure we’re equipped to really assess as a council."

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Raso, who has an existing 7-acre oyster farm in South Kingstown's Potter Pond, is seeking an additional 3-acre lease to grow oysters and scallops. He's faced vigorous opposition from waterfront homeowners who say that they don't have a problem with oyster farms but don't think that this is the right spot — a refrain often heard in coastal communities throughout Rhode Island.

More than five years have passed since Raso applied for the additional lease. During that time, the CRMC created an entire Perry Raso Subcommittee, whose members listened to hours upon hours of public testimony. That subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend rejecting the proposal, splitting with CRMC's professional staff reviewer, who said it should be approved.

Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Raso's attorneys submitted "new evidence" — a proposal to move the farm closer to land, use submerged gear rather than floating gear, and reduce the size of the aquaculture lease by a third, so that it would take up only two acres.

CRMC staff attorney Anthony DeSisto advised the council that the submission did not qualify as newly discovered evidence and appeared to be a settlement proposal, "and therefore is not something that the council should consider or make part of the record at this time."

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The council agreed and voted against considering the new proposal, which council member Don Gomez described as a "Hail Mary." But council member Jerry Sahagian suggested a different compromise: Reducing the size of the lease by 39%, and requiring a 50-foot buffer from land.

Sahagian said that he was not in favor of approving the application as submitted — "the floating devices, aesthetically, are just unpleasing," he said — but was concerned that a denial would be overturned in court.

Last year, the Rhode Island Superior Court reversed the CRMC's rejection of an oyster farm off Nayatt Point in Barrington. Sahagian suggested that Raso might also have grounds for a successful appeal if his application were denied: Former CRMC aquaculture director David Beutel, "the aquaculture guru of the Northeast," had issued a recommendation in favor of the proposal, and South Kingstown's harbormaster "said there wouldn't be any navigational issues."

"There’s a chance [that] if we deny this, the Superior Court could overturn it, and the entire 3 acres could get approved," Sahagian said. "So that concerns me." Having the entire project approved, he said, "would be a travesty."

Sahagian's motion to approve a scaled-back version of Raso's original proposal failed on a split 4-to-4 vote, after Robinson Hall raised concerns about making a "substantial change" without CRMC staff input, or an opportunity for the public to comment. A subsequent motion to have staff review the modifications passed 6 to 2.

"We're not the experts," Robinson Hall said. "They are."

Robinson Hall has far more expertise in coastal issues than many of her colleagues on the council — she's a former staff attorney with the Department of Environmental Management and a professor at Williams College's marine-studies program in Mystic, Connecticut. When appointed by Gov. Dan McKee last year, she was lauded by Save The Bay as the "ideal candidate," according to ecoRI News.

Beloved restaurant at odds with residents near oyster farm

The drawn-out battle over Potter Pond pits one of the state's most celebrated restaurants against nearby homeowners who say that the expansion would leave less space for water-skiing and tubing.

The new oyster and scallop farm would be located in in Segar Cove, a sheltered corner of the salt pond. Raso previously stated that he chose that spot because there was very little recreational activity — and, as proof, submitted photos that he took at the same time every day over the course of several summer months.

Objectors, who have hired high-priced lawyers, claim that those photos don't present an accurate picture. Some have also voiced larger frustrations with Matunuck Oyster Bar and the increased traffic and noise that have accompanied the restaurant's popularity.

Currently, only 2% of Potter Pond is taken up by aquaculture leases. Approving the additional 3-acre lease would have brought the total to 3%. (5% is the maximum allowed.)

In its final report, the Perry Raso Subcommittee concluded that approving the application would mean that only two boats would be able to tow water-skiers through at a time, while currently there is room for three. It could also mean that sailboats and other slower-moving vessels would be forced to travel in the unofficial "fast lane" used by water-skiers in Segar Cove, the report said.

Gomez said on Tuesday that he'd never voted to oppose an oyster farm before, "but I think it's a bad spot." He said that he'd felt that kayakers and water-skiers "could adjust" but that he was concerned that there wouldn't be enough room left for sailboats to navigate in and out of the cove.

"The sailboat question really stuck with me," he said, describing it as "the nail in the coffin."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Matunuck Oyster Bar oyster farm expansion on hold after CRMC vote