What’s next for PCC in 2025 and beyond
Great Creek Crossings Considerations
With increased sea level rise and larger storm surge events over the next 25 years, the current Great Creek bridge in Jamestown will be overcome by high tides and flooding. Already in the past three years, the bridge has been closed to traffic on a number of occasions, especially in the winter. So in April 2025, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) made a presentation to the town about their design plans for building a new bridge across Great Creek marsh.
At that meeting RIDOT offered five bridge design options. Options ranged from doing nothing to Option 5, a massive 16 ft high bridge that is over a 1/4 mile in length and 40 feet wide. This option is favored by the RIDOT engineers and construction is slotted to begin in four years and is projected to be “a long-term build.” Other designs “in-between” these two extremes were also proposed and are included in the RIDOT presentation attached to this email and posted to our website.
So in July 2025, in a letter to the Town Council that was reported in the Jamestown Press, the Jamestown Conservation Commission strongly opposed RIDOT's Option 5 recommendation due to its enormous size and the aesthetic and environmentally deleterious impacts on the Town, Great Creek and the marsh. The letter stated in part: “We believe that the ‘largest’ bridge option proposed by RIDOT is simply too large. Bridge construction across wetlands can have significant environmental impacts, including altering water flow, damaging soil structures and impacting wildlife habitats,” they wrote. The Commission also said the options for the bridge “fail to consider the environmental degradation” that would occur during installation.
Brad Whitman, a lifelong Jamestowner and trustee of PCC, said: “In the past, Jamestown residents have expressed their will to preserve intact forever the islands' rural character and environment when they paid millions through taxes to preserve the farms that surround the creek and marsh--and, of course, the windmill. The RIDOT proposal violates this public will.” Consequently, Protect Conanicut Coastline has teamed up with the Jamestown Conservation Commission to generate considerably more discussion and input from townspeople to right-size this bridge for our community.
The good news is that RIDOT indicated at their April meeting a willingness to consider input from Jamestown residents to inform their decision making. RIDOT will again be meeting with Jamestown town leaders in September, so we are asking for your help to reach out in the next few weeks to RIDOT Great Creek Bridge Project Manager Pamela Cotter (suggested email below) and share with her how you feel about their recommended bridge design #5, as well as other options.
As you may be aware, our nonprofit organization, Protect Conanicut Coastline (PCC), is committed to providing Jamestowners with timely information on critical issues affecting Jamestown’s coastline. And it works to protect and preserve our coastal resources, including Great Creek salt marsh, for all time. No question about it, this is a mission critical effort for us.
So if you would like to join our efforts for a smaller, smarter Great Creek Bridge that preserves and protects the aesthetic and environmental values of the creek and the salt marsh, please send a brief email to Pamela Cotter, before the next RIDOT session with the Town Council, sometime in September. We have attached a short email to her that you can use either directly or as inspiration:
To: RIDOT Project Manager – Pamela Cotter
Pamela.cotter@dot.ri.govDear Ms. Cotter:I am writing to you as a concerned Jamestown resident. I believe that the recommended Bridge Option #5 for Great Creek is too much bridge for Jamestown. While I understand why RIDOT wants to build for a 100-year horizon flood plain level, the scale and scope of that bridge would dwarf our town and its character. I am in favor of a smaller and less impactful bridge design and would encourage you and your team to focus on options that are smaller and smarter.I look forward to participating in this process and thank you for your consideration.Best regards,(signer)
CRMC Reform
The bulk of our current work, of course, revolves around reforming CRMC, and in 2024, we made enormous strides in that direction. A comprehensive bill to reform CRMC, doing away with the 10-member council and replacing it with a new Department of Coastal Resources, was submitted in both the Senate and the House. Key senior legislators, including Senate President Dominick Ruggiero, Senate Majority Leader Ryan Pearson, and Jamestown’s Senator Dawn Euer, were co-sponsors of the bill. The companion bill in the House was submitted a week later, co-sponsored by Jamestown Representative Alex Finkelman and powerfully introduced by A.G. Peter Neronha.
But despite this terrific momentum, the House and Senate leadership, aided and abetted by the RI Governor, secretly maneuvered to keep the bills from coming to the floor for a vote, which would have been overwhelmingly in favor of passage. So now we are already gearing up for a stronger effort in 2025, and will both broaden and strengthen our advocacy and communications efforts to finally see CRMC reform next year.
CRMC Water Type
We will shine a critical spotlight on the 1980s outdated CRMC water type classification system that considers the entire east coast of Conanicut Island from the Newport Bridge to Bull Point as preferred for commercial development over residential and conservation purposes. We are working with The Dumplings Association for appropriate changes to that rule.
Click here to find out more about CRMC Water Type.
Monitor Local Government
As the island watchdog, we will play close attention to the operations of the Jamestown planning and zoning boards, as well as the Town Council, where they affect our coastal heritage, and plan to speak out both through earned media and at public meetings. Sea level rise and storm surge planning for threatened areas of Jamestown are already on the Town Council docket, but we will advocate for much stronger action on preparing our island for the already happening climate crisis. We will closely monitor the expansion plans of the three corporate-owned marinas, often conducted under the radar of state organizations like DEM and CRMC, to assess whether their plans are in conflict with stated conservation objectives.
Aquaculture
We will also monitor the expansion of aquaculture farms around the island to ensure that they are sited appropriately, are environmentally appropriate and do not impede public access to those waterways.
But to do all this, we plan to enhance our organization by the following:
Expand the size of our board, grow our support across the island and enhance our professional and technical expertise
Update and launch PCC website as primary communications and development tool
Begin to promote PCC through earned media campaign;
Expand policy partnerships with other Jamestown and Rhode Island NGOs
Develop the PCC website as our primary communications and development tool
Continue to promote PCC through a sustained media campaign
We are now set to move our organization to a higher level of preparedness for the battles to come, with clear environmental goals in adherence to Jamestown's Comprehensive Community Plan, adopted by the town in 2015, which seeks to protect our island's ecological integrity and rural character. We believe this plan also provides a strong basis to seek financial support for our operations, and we welcome all interested parties to join us in those efforts.
