By Rob Smith — The state’s coastal regulating agency is already starting the new year on the wrong foot. The Coastal Resources Management Council quietly announced last month that longtime council member and Little Compton resident Donald Gomez was resigning. Gomez, who prior to his professional retirement worked as an electric engineer for the Navy in Newport, had been serving in some capacity on CRMC’s executive panel since 2007.

By Alex Nunes — Two lawsuits are challenging a law enacted in 2023 that sets a new definition for the public trust shoreline in Rhode Island

By Brian Amaral — “This lawsuit is about two things: property rights and abuse of government process for political gain,” Weekapaug Fire District moderator Bob McCann said of the would-be shore access path in Westerly

By Alex Nunes — The increasingly litigious shoreline fire district wants to end a state review that could result in a new beach right-of-way being designated in Westerly.

By Alex Nunes — The Weekapaug Fire District has filed a motion in Rhode Island Superior Court, asking a judge to find the town of Westerly in contempt of a decades-old agreement that covers use of a road known as the Sand Trail that runs down the middle of the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach.

By Alex Nunes — A legal fight over a town-designated path to the beach has put the town council president’s connections to the Watch Hill resort community in the spotlight.

By Frank Carini — … This year, longtime debate about the control of an access path — so-called “Fort Road,” the name locals use to refer to the pathway from Watch Hill to Napatree Point — to the popular Westerly destination finally spilled over

By Ryan Blessing — The Watch Hill Fire District and Watch Hill Conservancy fired a legal salvo Thursday over the Westerly Town Council’s attempts to designate a right of way on Fort Road, the popular access route to public lands on Napatree Point.

By Alex Nunes — The legal action comes in an escalating battle over the Fort Road right-of-way to the undeveloped Napatree Point beach and conservation area.

By Brian Amaral — The Watch Hill Fire District and the Watch Hill Conservancy on Thursday filed a lawsuit naming the town, various town officials, and the state of Rhode Island in Superior Court over the fate of so-called Fort Road. That’s the name people in town use to refer to a path from Watch Hill to Napatree Point — a path that the two entities say is not actually a a public right-of-way.

Interceding in a case raising significant issues involving government transparency in environmental disputes, four organizations recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in Rhode Island Supreme Court in a long-standing controversy involving the proposed expansion of Champlin’s Marina & Resort on Block Island.

By Ryan Blessing — A Superior Court judge this week ruled against a Bonnet Shores Fire District policy that prevents residents who own less than $400 of property in the district from voting in its elections…

Interceding in a case raising significant issues involving government transparency in environmental disputes, Save The Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association and Foundation, and Common Cause Rhode Island today filed a “friend of the court” (amicus curiae) brief in the Rhode Island Supreme Court in a long-standing controversy involving the proposed expansion of Champlin’s Marina on Block Island.

By Sofie Rudin — Rhode Island’s coastal agency followed the law when it went into mediation with a Block Island marina owner. That’s the decision released Thursday by Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear.

By Jim Hummel — The mediated settlement of a controversial marina expansion on Block Island was a common-sense solution to nearly two decades of litigation. Or, it was a secret backroom deal that violated state law and excluded opponents who had fought the proposal every step of the way.