Town Council members propose spending $600K to $800K on 1/2 acre lot on Ninigret Pond for a new boat ramp without divulging their ties to lot owner

CCA first learned of this issue when the Town Council advertised a public hearing on January 11 to apply for a $200K State grant to offset some of the cost of acquisition and development of this property. We know that State and Town open space dollars are limited and we believe that town funds should be used on the best projects. This is what we know so far.

Boat Ramp project dropped on February 8

  • Town Councilors announced on February 8 that the acquisition of this 1/2 acre lot had ben dropped. CRMC approval was unlikely after USFWS and Salt Ponds Coalition raised environmental concerns. However, the Town Council did not make a decision influenced by these environmental factors. It was the seller of the land that terminated negotiations. With the exception of the next topic about the boardwalk, this page deals with the boat ramp, which we believe is now a dead issue. The page does have information and maps so it will still be useful in evaluating the boardwalk proposal. If the lot owner begins to negotiate again, the boat ramp issue may be revived.

Town Council continues with project for Boardwalk at Mud Cove.

  • The Town is still pursuing grant funding for development of the Mud Cove property and the land that was the driving range. Download this pdf file to see an image scan of the grant proposal. This is a 2.2 MB file prepared by the town and is not great quality. We are hoping the Town will provide the original pdf file. This grant proposal was submitted to DEM on February 8. This grant proposal still shows a future motorized boat ramp on the Maynard property, but we believe that is because the proposal was prepared before the decision to not build the boat ramp.

Potential Conflict of Interest?

  • Town Councilors Forrester Safford and Charlene Dunn have a past legal association with Kenneth Maynard, the owner of this lot proposed for acquisition by the town. According to the Providence Journal, in 1998 Safford, Dunn and Maynard filed a law suit against Charlestown. They claimed that by designating wetlands and other constrained lands as unbuildable it would "inhibit growth" in Charlestown and reduce the amount of development that Mr. Maynard and others would be able to do. Click on this link to read the 1998 Providence Journal Article

History of the request and questions about land value:

  • Early last year the Council paid for an appraisal of the lot. The resulting April 1 appraisal came up with a value of $610K for the property. When that figure was judged too low, another appraisal was done on July 23 that resulted in a value of $666K.
  • The higher appraisal was the result of the appraiser receiving more positive information about the lot, but it is still unclear if the appraiser ever received all of the negative information about the lot.
  • The Council submitted a request to DEM for $200K even though there are currently no open grant rounds. The grant application lists the cost of land acquisition at $800K with $200K to come from the state and $600K to come from the town.
  • The Grant application was made to DEM on December 14 and then the public hearing on whether to send in the grant was held on January 11. Did the Public Hearing have no meaning if the application had already been sent?
  • At first the Town Council described this lot as "having all its permits". When CCA pointed out that this lot does not have CRMC approval (the owner has tried to get that approval in 1988, 2003 and then 2008) the approval was then described as "pending".
  • As of January 2010 the last activity in the CRMC file is a letter from the applicant's agents saying they are in negotiations with the neighbors to move the neighbor's septic system. The neighbors have an easement on this lot for their septic system. The letter was written to CRMC in February 2009, as of January 2010, the neighbor's claim that they have not yet been contacted about moving their septic system.
  • At the January 11 Public Hearing Councilor Safford said the reason that Mr. Maynard's attorney had not pursued this negotiation with the neighbors was because he was going to sell to the Town and would not need CRMC approval for a house.
  • If an approval from CRMC was received it would add value to the lot, making Mr. Safford's explanation above illogical. And how could the lot owner be certain the town was going to purchase the lot anyway?
  • The Town's own application to CRMC to build the boat ramp shows a road to be built over the neighbor's septic system. They also show another road to be built entirely within a wetland buffer. If the appraiser knew about the existence of the neighbor's septic on this lot, why didn't the town know?

Why this lot?

  • The lot to be purchased would provide a new boat access to Ninigret Pond. The red dot in the map above marks the site of the acquisition. The blue symbols ( ) show public boat launches. Both this lot and Lavin's Landing, an existing boat launch, are located on Sportsman Road. Click on the map above or here to see a larger version of this map.
  • There are already five existing public boat launches on Ninigret Pond. Click here to see all public boat launches in Charlestown.
  • The pond is very shallow at this site. The Town Council has suggested dredging may be necessary here to allow boat access.

Environmental impacts of the proposed boat ramp

  • The Salt Ponds Coalition, the local organization whose mission is to protect the coastal ponds, has written a letter of opposition on this project to the Charlestown Town Council. You can read that letter by downloading a PDF of the letter here.
  • The United States Fish and Wildlife Service , recommends that a boat ramp not be placed at this location. They have also written a letter of opposition on this project to the Charlestown Town Council. You can read that letter by downloading a PDF of the letter here.
  • Adversely effect wetlands both directly and indirectly
  • Increase disturbance to migrating and nesting birds dependent on salt marsh and wetland habitats
  • Adversely effect shellfish and eelgrass restoration efforts.
  • Storm water from the parking lot and ramp will run into the pond along with petro chemicals leaked from cars, trucks and motorboats.
  • The portion of the pond where the proposed launch is receives less flushing than areas closer to the breachway and is more susceptible to pollution.
  • There are also many shoals and sand flats between the launch and the breachway, including newly restored eelgrass meadows. Large motorboats, driven by people not familiar with the pond, will run aground and will damage the pond bottom.

Additional costs to taxpayers:

  • The Town Council has suggested a fee will be required to use the boat launch. This will require staff to collect fees and monitor use of the boat ramp.
  • On January 11 the Council voted to hire a design firm for $76K to do a feasibility study of the site.
  • Besides the cost of buying the land what are the other costs of the project, such as building a parking lot, roads and dredging the pond?

Here are some more unanswered questions:

  • Did the appraiser look at the CRMC file or talk to staff at CRMC?
  • Is the "pending" decision at CRMC an approval or a denial?
  • The section of the appraisal that lists all known easements does not mention that the neighbor's septic system is located on this lot. Did the appraiser know about this septic system or not?
  • Assuming the appraiser knew about the septic system on site, did the appraiser check the status of negotiations with the neighbors to move their septic system?
  • Did the appraiser know the full extent of freshwater wetlands on the parcel?
  • Did the appraiser inquire as to how long this parcel has been on the market without selling?
  • If the current application for a house does not get CRMC approval how much would that reduce the appraisal?
  • The water depths the Town describes for this lot appear to be high tide numbers. The average depths are much lower. How much dredging will be needed to allow boats to launch from this site? How often will this need to be re-dredged to maintain adequate depths? What is the environmental impact of that dredging on shellfish beds and what is the fiscal impact?
  • How much staffing will be required to collect fees?
  • How will the boat launch be policed, both on land and in the water?
  • Will the cost of staffing and borrowing exceed any fees collected?
  • What other open space properties have the Town Council reviewed and rejected in favor of this half acre lot?
  • Has the Town Council inquired of Charlestown's land trust to see if there are better projects in the works that the Town could partner on (assuming there are funds available)?
  • One of the biggest questions is why didn't the Town Councilors (Safford and Dunn) disclose their former legal relationship with the owner of this lot?
  • Do any of the Town Councilors have any other associations with this land owner?

More information:

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