Wetland issues delay Shelter Harbor project

Golf Course News, Nov 2002 by Rice, Derek

Editorial Focus: Wetland Management

Course to break ground after long permitting process, many 'significant' routing changes

NEWPORT, R.I. - Nearly three years after the permit process commenced, Shelter Harbor Golf Club is set to break ground this month. Permitting in Rhode Island is usually difficult, said architect Michael Hurdzan, who designed the course.

"We've worked in 30 or 40 states at this point, and I would say Rhode Island is the most difficult state to get permits in," Hurdzan said. "They have a very small parcel of ground that they fiercely protect."

The major cause for the delays centered around the property's hundreds of acres of wetlands, Hurdzan said.

"We went through the normal identification, avoidance and all that, but they would continually find more wetlands," Hurdzan said. "Each time we did a wetland survey, they would find more, so there was never a definitive wetland survey until someone finally said, 'Stop, we have to have a map that we work with.'

"This was the most complicated and litigious permit process that we have been through. It was a large tract of land, it was in two towns and it had a lot of different issues," he added.

Another wetlands related issue that caused delays centered on the state's desire to put in place significant buffer zones around the wetlands, Hurdzan said.

"When we would find small wetlands, then figure on a significant buffer, it really reduced the amount of usable area," Hurdzan said. "We were constantly trying to find the best compromise-how to protect the maximum amount of wetlands with the minimum amount of impact. There's no filling of wetlands that I'm aware of."

In total, Hurdzan said, the delays ran from between six months and a year because of the continual finding of new wetlands. Throughout the stop-and-start planning process, Hurdzan had to change the course's planned routing.

"I would say that the routing plan was substantially changed 25 or 30 times," he said. "Not just a little tweak, but going in and taking a whole different look at something."

Hurdzan said throughout the process, project manager Richard Anthony and the group of founders of the club handled the constant delays well.

"The Shelter Harbor people hired the best people they could, everybody worked very intensely and they played by the rules," Hurdzan said. I cannot emphasize enough the quality of the people involved in this and their willingness to compromise things they really didn't want to compromise, but they knew it was for the good of the project. The fact that the owners stuck it out says a lot about them."

Because Hurdzan's firm, Hurdzan-Fry Golf Course Architects, has built a reputation of taking on challenging environmental projects like Shelter Harbor, he was prepared to see it through to the end.

"Donald Ross would never have built a golf course here because he would have given up on the problems that are associated with it," Hurdzan said. "Our attitude is that if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. If we can make it through Rhode Island, by God, we can probably make it through anywhere."

Despite all the problems, Hurdzan said he wouldn't avoid a project in Rhode Island in the future.

"With the quality of clients we have and with the potential greatness we have with the site, I would absolutely take on a project in Rhode Island again," he said. "Would I want to work in Rhode Island on a routine basis? Sure, they're nice enough people and I would learn the rules as well as them, but you have to pick your sites very carefully in Rhode Island."

Upon completion of the course, Shelter Harbor's owners plan to deed the wetlands on the property to the state of Rhode Island, Hurdzan said.