UPDATED: Arrrrr! Thar She Blows!

Night #1 of a series of Whalerock Zoning Board meetings

I estimate that more than 400 people were there at the start

By Will Collette

I confess: I left at 9 PM when Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) chair Mike Rzewuski called a recess. By that time, about three-quarters of the 400+ people who came out for this hearing had also left. I decided, for reasons that will become clear as you read on, that it was better to zip out of the hearing to write this article than to stay for Act I’s closing curtain.

Based on the mountain of testimony ahead, this process is going to extend well into June. The ZBR has already set dates for two more meetings on Whalerock’s application for a Special Use Permit for its two 410-foot high wind turbines which will overlook Route One. Those dates are June 5 and June 19. UPDATE: as it turns out, the Westerly Sun reported that the hearing was halted for the evening before the Whalerock team could complete its presentation.

Let me give you the good news first. Here is the reason why I am more convinced than ever that the Whalerock turbines will not be built: according to Michael Carlino, developer Larry LeBlanc’s son-in-law and partner who testified as Whalerock’s “Project Supervisor,” the turbines will cost “$4 million each” to construct and they are “not using public funds.”

Will June 5 Whalerock hearing yield answers to questions?

Still a lot we don’t know

By Will Collette

The second episode of what looks like a long-running summer dramatic series here in Charlestown takes place on June 5 when the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) resumes its deliberations on the application for a Special Use Permit from the unpopular Whalerock industrial wind farm project owned by developer Larry LeBlanc. Click here to read my coverage of the opening hearing.

The June 5 hearing will hear a continuation of Whalerock’s presentation on its application for the permit. The complexity of the project, the large crowd, the repeated objections and counter-objections from the lawyers and questions from the ZBR members made the May 22^nd hearing slow going, so it will take at least one more night for Whalerock to make its case and for the opponents to begin firing back.

Lots of questions were left unanswered after the May 22 opener. Indeed, there are some questions that require answers that haven’t even been asked yet. I think most people who have participated in, or followed this case, have their own list of those questions. Here are mine.

BREAKING NEWS: Judge dumps Whalerock wind farm lawsuit back in Charlestown’s lap

Irate judge blasts town staff, Zoning Board, citizen plaintiffs and Whalerock for sloppy and incompetent work

By Will Collette

On Thursday, RI District Judge Judith C. Savage issued her long-anticipated ruling in the consolidated case involving developer Larry LeBlanc’s controversial Whalerock wind turbine project that would have placed two huge turbines on the peak of the glacial moraine that runs north and parallel to Route One.

Judge Savage’s 51-page ruling sends the case back to Charlestown to be done properly. Through the 51 pages of her decision, Judge Savage blasts the town of Charlestown, the Zoning Board of Review, Larry LeBlanc’s lawyer and the abutting residents to the land where LeBlanc proposed the wind farm. 

She labels their various filings as incomplete, uncertified, irrelevant and a waste of the court’s time. She blasts the town and the Zoning Board for failing to follow state law and Charlestown Code.

In her words, “This Court is appalled at the state of the record…” (page 35). Read the entire decision here.

What the judge said, what it means

Analyzing the Whalerock decision

By Will Collette

Last August, RI Superior Court Judge Judith Savage dismissed all the Whalerock cases and berated all four major parties and their lawyers for terrible legal work[1]. She sent the Whalerock industrial wind farm dispute back to the Charlestown Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) because their decision did not include documentation of any points of law to support their votes.

The ZBR reconsidered Whalerock’s appeal of the town’s reversal on their permit approval, added documentation drafted by the Zoning Board’s lawyer, and again decided that Whalerock met the requirements of the law with the same 4-1 vote as the previous decision upholding Whalerock’s appeal.

This confirmation of the previous decision by the ZBR led swiftly to a new legal challenge by the town of Charlestown to sue its own Zoning Board. Whalerock counter-sued. Trailing behind, a smaller group of neighbors weighed in with their own lawsuit. That put all four major parties who were tossed out of court last August back in Superior Court, but before a different judge.

Judge Rodgers was picked by former Governor
Don Carcieri who swore her in in 2009

Judge Kristin Rodgers issued her own ruling on April 10^th that gave Whalerock and its developer Larry LeBlanc just about everything they asked for, vindicated the Zoning Board, once again embarrassed the town and left the group of neighbors led by the CCA Party’s Ron Areglado with nothing more than their large legal bills. 

The Planning Commission also may have taken a hit when Judge Rodgers definitively stated that in this case, the Commission’s role is purely advisory, even though Planning has become Charlestown’s de facto ruling regulatory and legislative body.

A careful reading of Judge Rodgers decision shows that neither the Town of Charlestown, represented by Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero nor the Areglado plaintiffs represented by James Donnelly were able to mount challenges that were any better than those rejected by Judge Savage last August.

Sleep walking in Charlestown

Another Chapter of the Whalerock Saga on Wednesday

Yes, I know I've used this squirrel before. But it's the best
visual I can find to depict this whole Whalerock mess

By Will Collette

On Wednesday, July 17, at the Charlestown Elementary School, the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) is scheduled to hold Hearing #5[1] in its long-running series on the application for a Special Use permit by developer Larry LeBlanc for his proposed Whalerock wind turbine project. 

The hearing is set to run for a marathon four hours, from 6:30 PM to 10:30. The seats in the school auditorium are wicked hard, so bring a cushion and some No-Doz® if you intend to be there.

I don’t. This latest round in the never-ending Whalerock fight is, for all practical purposes, over. It was over from the start when ZBR Chair Mike Rzewuski and ZBR member Ron Crosson made it clear that “screw fairness and impartiality – we’re voting NO[2].” Since Whalerock must either get a unanimous vote or a 4 to 1 vote, these two members declared partisanship means there is no way Whalerock will get ZBR approval. They might as well just take a vote and get this over with.

Unless Charlestown’s “Plan B” kicks in, and the town moves seriously and deliberately toward buying the LeBlanc property for open space, LeBlanc will take the ZBR’s negative decision back to RI Superior Court for a third round of litigation. Given that the Zoning Board is a quasi-judicial body where the members must act in a fair and impartial manner, LeBlanc seems to have a pretty good case in court, especially given how he did in Rounds one and two.

Town wins court fight over standing

Decision handed down the same day as Council's Whalerock purchase decision

By Will Collette

RI Superior Court Judge Kristin Rodgers handed Charlestown one of its only Whalerock legal victories on Thursday, the same day that the Town Council voted to end the Whalerock controversy by buying most of the property for $2.1 million. 

Even though this important decision had direct bearing on the Council's deliberations, this decision was not released by the town until the day after the hearing.

Click here to read the decision.

Charlestown’s $50,000 Whalerock Special Counsel could be violating conflict of interest rules

By representing two different client groups in the same case, Mancini could be failing them both

By Will Collette

NOTE: the second in Charlestown's new dramatic summer drama, the hearings of Whalerock before the Zoning Board, takes place tonight at 7 PM at Charlestown Elementary.

The CCA Party majority Town Council emerged from its May 13 executive session and announced they had decided to spend $50,000 to hire a Special Counsel to represent the town. This Counsel would represent the town before the Zoning Board’s hearings on developer Larry LeBlanc’s application for a Special Use Permit for the Whalerock industrial wind project. By May 17, the town had hired John O. Mancini, who normally represents developers, as Charlestown’s new Special Counsel.

When Mancini introduced himself at the Zoning Board’s first Whalerock hearing on May 21, he said he was representing Charlestown and some unidentified abutters.

I was surprised to hear him say that and it stuck in my mind that there are generally problems when an attorney represents two different groups of clients on the same case. As I dug deeper, my concerns intensified.

Larry LeBlanc wants action on Whalerock wind farm

Whalerock seeks “expeditious decision” from the court

Larry LeBlanc's lawyer, Nick Gorham, is
pushing  for a decision in the case

By Will Collette

Developer Larry LeBlanc continues to press his proposal to build industrial-sized wind turbines on the moraine along the north side of Route 1 near King’s Factory Road.

A year ago, all of the parties, including the town of Charlestown, in all of the various lawsuits which were rolled into one big suit, signed an agreement to file all their various motions and memoranda to permit the judge to then make a ruling in this case.

But a full year passed, and still no decision, so LeBlanc, through his lawyer Nick Gorham filed a “Motion for Expeditious Resolution of All Claims” on May 8. 

Town Council preview: meeting on Monday, July 8

Important Whalerock items on the agenda

By Will Collette

A last minute addition to the Council agenda promises to turn what looked to be a boring meeting into one that could be pretty exciting.

Early Friday morning, an amended agenda was posted with a new agenda for an Executive Session and a new item of new business: the prospect of a special town referendum to authorize spending up to $2.7 million to purchase developer Larry LeBlanc's 81-acre site for the proposed Whalerock wind turbine.

Whalerock, plus the potential new war with the Narragansett Indian Tribe, and the obligatory discussion about the Copar quarry are on the Executive Committee agenda as well.

And one other item that hasn't been on the Executive Session agenda is Council member Lisa DiBello's now long-running $1.5 million lawsuit against the Town over her May 2010 firing. Perhaps it's time for the anticipated settlement of that sordid case.

If the Council has worked a deal with DiBello, they may announce it as soon as they come out of their Executive Session.

Breaking News: Whalerock and LeBlanc win

Town and Areglado Ill Winders Lose

We need to get serious about acquiring the 81 acres
for open space to end this drama

By Will Collette

The anticipated decision in the complex array of lawsuits over the proposed Whalerock industrial wind farm was issued today by RI Superior Court Judge Kristin Rodgers.

It’s bad news for the town of Charlestown and the group of neighbors who filed suit to block the project. It’s great news for Whalerock and developer Larry LeBlanc (and his silent partner, James Barrows of Brooklyn, Connecticut).

Read the 47 page decision in its entirety by clicking here.

Copar quarry opposition deserves fair and equal treatment

Charlestown needs to keep its promises

By Susan Clayton

Copar Quarry (Google Earth). My neighborhood is along the road to its right

My name is Susan Clayton. I live on the dirt road that borders the Copar Quarry site. 

My neighbors in Bradford and Charlestown have been valiantly fighting against Copar for their homes and their way of life through the Concerned Citizens of Bradford-Charlestown. I am late to the party, but because of continuing damage to my home and my well, I can't be complacent any longer.

Many of us tax paying citizens have remained quiet, thinking that surely the Town Councils of Westerly and Charlestown would look after our best interests. That’s what we elected them to do.

Why the June 26 Whalerock hearing was suspended

Craven’s absence was only part of it

By Will Collette

Bring on the next expert witness. Cue the Power Point

The June 26 fourth episode in Charlestown’s summer dramatic series, the Whalerock wind farm special use permit application to the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR), lasted only a few minutes before it was adjourned until July 17.

ZBR Chair Mike Rzewuski gave the reason for the quick in-and-out as the absence of the ZBR’s town lawyer, Bob Craven. As Rzewuski explained, Craven was up at the State Capitol where, wearing another hat as State Representative for North Kingstown, Craven was voting on the state budget. Rzewuski said they needed Craven there.

I can certainly agree that the ZBR members need their legal counsel present, although Craven’s presence at the previous three hearings has not helped the ZBR members from making a mess of the Whalerock case that will aid Whalerock in its inevitable court appeal after the ZBR rejects Whalerock’s application for a special use permit.

Is the Planning Commission illegitimate?

That’s what Whalerock’s lawyer Nick Gorham claims in papers filed yesterday in RI Superior Court. Just in time for the Town Council meeting (tomorrow) where, once again, his client’s offer to sell his land to the town will be discussed..

Gorham filed a Memorandum of Law accompanied by around 300 pages of attachments in the consolidated lawsuits filed by neighbors of Larry LeBlanc’s property on Route One, site of LeBlanc’s proposed Whalerock commercial wind turbine project.

In this filing, Gorham asks the court to rule “that the Charlestown Planning Commission’s only role in the Whalerock application for an LWES [commercial wind turbine] is to advise the zoning board of review (Count I) and that the Planning Commission is illegally constituted because it is elected rather than appointed (Count II).”

Gorham raised this issue at the Planning Commission’s April 27^th meeting and effectively closed the meeting. If Gorham is right and the Court agrees to issue the ruling he requests, the actions by the Planning Commission in taking primacy over the Whalerock application last year could be tossed out.

Gorham’s case in a nutshell: state law requires municipal boards, like Charlestown’s Planning Commission, to be appointed, not elected, to prevent taint of political bias. Gorham says Charlestown is the only town in Rhode Island that still elects its Planning Commission, in violation of state law. He also cites prejudicial remarks made by Planning Commission member Kate Waterman as evidence of political taint.

Personally, I doubt an appointed commission would be any less biased and tainted, but I found Gorham’s arguments about what Rhode Island law requires to be well argued. Rather than take my word for it, read his argument yourself. I have cut-and-pasted the core of his brief to the end of this article, below the fold.

BONUS: I learned a great new word from Gorham’s brief. I plan to use it often. The word is “nugatory.”

The last time the Planning Commission’s legitimacy was challenged was in 2007, when attorney Margaret Hogan questioned whether the elected commission complied with Rhode Island law. In January 2008, then town solicitor Bob Craven wrote a legal opinion to the Town Council telling them he said he saw nothing wrong with the practice and recommended no further action be taken.

At that time, no one seemed to want to press the issue any further and accepted Craven’s opinion as the final legal authority. But is it a surprise that the town lawyer would tell the town that what it is doing is OK? Lawyers are supposed to warn you away from doing something stupid. But generally you expect the lawyer to give you a legal justification for what you want to do. A judge may disagree. And I don't remember Craven being considered a great legal scholar.

Unless the Whalerock dispute is settled, most likely by the purchase of LeBlanc’s land by the town, RI Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Lanphear will get to decide whose version of legal reality is correct.

What’s next for Whalerock?

Is it alive? Dead? Undead?

By Will Collette

At the August 20 Town Council meeting, the young lawyers filling in for absent Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero confirmed my initial report that state District Court Judge Judith Savage’s recent court ruling dumped the Whalerock wind turbine project back in Charlestown’s lap. Read the decision here.

All four Whalerock-related lawsuits, which had been lumped together into one case, were rejected by the court, each for a different reason.

But now the spin-doctoring begins on the meaning and story behind these lawsuits, as well as what comes next.

Dick Frank purged from the Zoning Board by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

Second board member ousted as CCA stacks Zoning with CCA loyalists

The CCA Party will tolerate no deviation from their party line

By Will Collette

Long-serving member of the Charlestown Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) Richard Frank, husband of former Town Council member Marge Frank, learned at the July 17 Town Council meeting that despite his long and faithful service to town and his willingness to serve another term, he was being kicked off the ZBR.

Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) Council hit man Dan Slattery made the announcement during the usually routine portion of the town council agenda for re-appointment of volunteer commissioners who wish to be re-appointed, that he stood against Dick Frank’s re-appointment and his two CCA Party colleagues, Council Boss Tom Gentz and George Tremblay, nodded to indicate that a majority wanted to purge Frank.

Dueling experts, dueling lawyers and one surprise

Whalerock Zoning Board hearing, Part Deux

LeBlanc tells the ZBR he will pull the application if there's science showing
anyone will be hurt by Whalerock

By Will Collette

The second Act in Charlestown’s summer stock theatre run of the play entitled “Whalerock: Threat or Menace” is done. There will be at least two more acts and probably more. Tonight, the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) only heard two witnesses, but at the very start of the hearing, there was a surprise witness.

That was Whalerock’s owner, developer Larry LeBlanc. 

In an emotional ten minute sworn statement, LeBlanc acknowledged “there is a concern among my friends and neighbors” about the health and safety issues that have been raised about the Whalerock project, which consists of two, 410 foot tall industrial wind turbines that would be sited right off Route One near King’s Factory Road.

Whalerock: Zoning Board hearing #3 produces a moment of enlightenment

It’s not supposed to make sense

By Will Collette

OK, so I just got back from the third of a seemingly endless series of Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) hearings on the Whalerock wind farm proposal. Like Hearing #1 and Hearing #2, Hearing #3 was another display of dueling experts and dueling lawyers in a kangaroo court atmosphere.

Some of what went on tonight was slightly interesting and marginally different than the prior two hearings, but in the middle of watching a distinguished scientist from URI, Dr. Jay Singer, try to address public fears about wind turbines and health effects, I had a moment of satori, of a Zen-like clarity.

Singer was trying to explain how scientists study, quantify and theorize based on a discipline that requires rigorous scrutiny and the ability to duplicate results often enough to generalize. I heard the crowd jeer and catcall him, and saw some of the ZBR members display – sorry, guys – some woefully ignorant behavior.

It seemed that nothing Singer could say about the science could sway the somewhat diminished crowd or the two ZBR members (Crosson and Rzewuski) who have pre-judged this case from their firm belief that “Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS)” exists. No matter how thoroughly Singer debunked WTS, it made no difference.

That’s when it hit me: this debate over Whalerock is not about science or economics. It’s more like an argument over religion. 

UPDATED: How much is LarryLand worth?

What will it cost the taxpayers to end a decade of high anxiety?

By Will Collette

How much is it worth?

No matter the outcome of the Zoning Board of Review hearings on Larry LeBlanc’s proposed Whalerock industrial wind project, Charlestown’s on-going nightmare will continue. 

It will continue until either Larry LeBlanc builds something on his 81 acres overlooking Route One that will give him and his partners a profit or somebody pays him the price he needs to walk away.

The Gentz Rule: Déjà vu all over again

Town Council Boss concocts new rule on length of commission member terms

"I'm the Boss and I make the rules"

By Will Collette

One of the many errors made by Charlestown’s CCA Party town leaders in the Whalerock case is the one made by Town Council Boss Tom Gentz (CCA Party). 

On July 8, Gentz decided to set aside the almost automatic renewal of the terms for four members of the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) until the ZBR Whalerock hearings were completed.

One of those members, Bill Meyer, will see his current 5-year term expire on July 31. All three ZBR alternates, Amanda McGee, Scott Northrup and David Provancha, serve one year terms that also expire on July 31. 

Starting August 1, based on state law and the town charter, the Zoning Board will not be able to muster a quorum.

Gentz made the astounding claim that his motion protects the Whalerock proceedings by providing “continuity” when it’s far more likely it will have the opposite effect.

Gentz was backed up by the ever-accommodating Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero who agreed with Gentz’s concocted new rule that town board and commission members can serve past the expiration of their terms until a replacement is named. Apparently, neither of them remember - or paid any attention to - what happened the last time this issue came up five years ago. Read on to learn what history teaches us.

Charlestown Dems call for end to Whalerock crisis

Acquiring LeBlanc property for open space called "best option" to protect Charlestown residents

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) weighed in with its opinion on how to resolve the controversial Whalerock wind turbine project: stop focusing on short-term delaying tactics and shift instead to good faith negotiations so Larry LeBlanc's prime and strategic 81 acres can be acquired as open space.

The CDTC noted its opposition to Whalerock based on its belief that Whalerock is “the wrong technology in the wrong location.” Click here to read the full statement by town Democrats.

The Committee has sent its resolution of opposition to Whalerock and support for open space acquisition to the town for inclusion in the Zoning Board of Review's hearing record on the project.