PROVIDENCE — The Coastal Resources Management Council last week postponed the Policies and Procedures Subcommittee’s hearing for the second month in a row regarding the proposed water type downgrade along the Quidnessett Country Club shoreline, a move that further delays the removal of an illegally built 550-foot seawall.

In a Nov. 25 email to CRMC, Save The Bay said the politically appointed council members are abusing their power while the North Kingstown country club continues to violate state and federal law. The Providence-based nonprofit urged the council to immediately follow through on its enforcement order requiring Quidnessett to remove the seawall, restore public access to the shore, and cease harm to the coastal resources without further delay.

“The council’s lack of consistency and fairness undermines the integrity of Rhode Island’s coastal governance, the protection of our coastal ecosystems, and the public’s ability to access the shore,” said Topher Hamblett, Save The Bay’s executive director. “The council’s actions smack of political favoritism and abuse of power.”

By allowing Quidnessett’s illegal seawall to remain for more than 450 days, the council is undermining CRMC staff’s enforcement order to remove the wall and restore the shoreline that is now buried and inaccessible, according to Save The Bay.

“By delaying action on the enforcement order, while continuing to conduct inappropriate hearings aimed at letting the illegal wall stand, the Council is complicit in Quidnessett’s attempts to downgrade state protection of adjacent Narragansett Bay waters through a blatantly illegal action,” the email read.

The seawall, designed to protect the country club’s 14th hole from coastal erosion, has been the center of a tug of war between coastal regulators and the Quidnessett. The club erected the seawall — knowingly without required state and federal permits — in 2023, and shortly after CRMC issued the club a notice of violation and told the club to take it down.

The club didn’t comply, and instead filed a petition to change the water type — similar to municipal zoning, but for state waters — to one that would make the seawall permissible under CRMC regulations.