Statement from Attorney General Neronha on Champlin’s Realty Associates v. the Coastal Resources Management Council

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Attorney General Peter F. Neronha issued the following statement today following the Supreme Court Order denying the Joint Motion in Champlin’s Realty Associates v. the Coastal Resources Management Council:

“I am pleased with the Court’s decision to refuse to ratify and enter as an order of the Court an agreement resulting from a private mediation outside the view and without the participation of concerned stakeholders who had long been parties to the underlying litigation. My Office intervened because the process utilized here by the CRMC and Champlain’s was non-transparent, excluded these important additional stakeholders, and resulted in an agreement that failed to contain the environmental findings necessary to protect one of Rhode Island’s great natural resources – Block Island’s Great Salt Pond. 

“I am grateful that the Supreme Court agreed with our position, and that this matter will now proceed as it always should have – with the Court’s review of the Superior Court’s well-reasoned decision denying Champlain’s marina expansion.”

A copy of the Supreme Court Order can be found here.