Progress!

At the February 22 Tiverton Harbor Commission meeting, the applicants for the oyster farm north of Seapowet Point, Brad Boehringer and Travis Lundgren, spoke to the Commission, saying that they had withdrawn their application with the CRMC for a three-acre floating oyster farm. Mr. Boehringer said they would like to reapply in the future, with more stakeholder outreach and notice. He mentioned the new CRMC guidelines recently released that revise the aquaculture application process. Mr. Boehringer expressed a desire to work with the Tiverton Community in the future under CRMC’s new guidelines, “We’d like to get as much input from you guys going forward if it seems like a good idea to re-approach this.” You can hear his brief remarks at this link to the meeting.

Recently, CRMC revised their aquaculture application process to include abutter notification. CRMC will now require applicants to include a list of all property owners within 1,000 feet of the proposed boundary of the lease so CRMC can notify those property owners. The revised application process also includes guidelines for floating and submerged gear and other recommendations to identify conflicts with existing uses of the area within 1,000 feet. You can watch CRMC’s video presentation on the changes here. You can download the PowerPoint slides at this link.

Our Save Seapowet fight to preserve public access continues. The CRMC is still considering the Bowen application in the recreational area adjacent to the Seapowet Bridge at the outflow of the Seapowet Marsh. Despite the letters many of you sent to the CRMC documenting the significant recreational use of these Seapowet waters, it is unclear whether CRMC staff has changed their support for the Bowen application.