Sapowet Cove is shown on the western shore of Tiverton in the Sakonnet River. (Google Earth image)
One month after the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) failed to decide the fate of a proposed oyster farm in Tiverton, project opponents are asking a judge to step in.
The Sept. 24 complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court against both the CRMC and applicants John and Patrick Bowen argues the council’s failure to take action amounts to an illegal abuse of its authority. The application for the 1-acre oyster farm was submitted in late 2019, yet the seven-member council has yet to decide whether objections over its impact on boating, fishing and recreation can stop it from happening.
On Aug. 25, the council met to accept its hearing officer’s determination that a 2024 state law limiting development along the Sakonnet River did not stop the project review from advancing because the law was not retroactive.
In accepting the determination, however, the seven-member council made clear it was not issuing a final decision on the project, allowing the quasi-judicial hearing process to continue. Because it was not a final decision, there was not yet an opportunity for objectors to appeal under the state’s Administrative Procedures Act.
A group of neighbors who own properties near the proposed oyster farm site argue they should not have to wait any longer before taking their case to a judge.
“Requiring Appellants to proceed through a full evidentiary hearing before obtaining judicial review of that threshold legal determination would therefore be futile and would not provide an adequate remedy within the meaning of [state law],” the complaint states.
Laura Dwyer, a spokesperson for the CRMC, acknowledged requests for comment on the appeal, but did not immediately provide a response Monday.
The proposed oyster farm has become the poster child for what critics say is an inefficient and unfairly drawn-out coastal review process. John and Patrick Bowen, brothers who live in Little Compton, filed the application to set up 200 bottom cages a few hundred feet from the shoreline in December 2019. Nearby property owners, fishermen and the state aquaculture association joined together in opposition to what they allege would interfere with fishing, boating and public recreation.
The dispute made its way to Mark Krieger, CRMC hearing officer, in 2023, soon after Gov. Dan McKee appointed him to the position. An initial hearing was held in 2024, but the schedule was scratched in July 2025 after three groups of nearby property owners filed a motion, asking Krieger to dismiss the case based on the 2024 law limiting area waterfront development.
The complaint notes that almost two years have passed since initial arguments, well past the 60-day deadline required by state law.
And the CRMC’s acceptance of Krieger’s determination, without a final decision or even a clear timeline for when that decision will come, amounts to an “abuse of discretion” of its authority, the complaint states.
John Bowen expressed frustration with the nearly seven-year wait for a decision, but blamed the delay on opposition groups rather than the CRMC.
“I’d rather have them get it right than rush to a decision or be pressured,” he said of the coastal regulatory review.
Yet John Bowen said he and his brother are still committed to the project, which they envision as a side gig to their respective jobs as an aquaculture coordinator and carpentry teacher, both in Massachusetts. The pair plan to sell oysters direct-to-consumer and to local restaurants, in addition to offering educational visits for students.
John Bowen said he was “dismayed” that he and his brother were named as defendants in the complaint, which centers on the state’s coastal review process — something applicants do not control.
“If the state is trying to encourage aquaculture, a process that allows applicants to be sued strictly for following the process is disheartening,” John Bowen said.
Marisa Desautel, the attorney representing three sets of property owners in the complaint, declined to comment.
The appeal asks a judge to toss Krieger’s determination that the 2024 law does not apply to the project, while affirming the property owners’ right to appeal even without a final decision by the CRMC.
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Courtesy of Rhode Island Current
