Coastal Resources Management Council of Rhode Island - (401) 783-3370

The CRMC plans and manages the state's coastal resources, balancing environmental and economic considerations to benefit current and future generations

The Coastal Resource Management Council is a state agency charged with the preservation, protection, development and, where possible, the restoration of the coastal areas of the state via the issuance of permits for work with the coastal zone of the state.

In 1971, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation that created the Coastal Resources Management Council. The legislative findings recognized the paramount importance that the coastal resources provide to the social and economic welfare of the state, and charged the CRMC with the explicit policy:

"...to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, restore the coastal resources of the state for this and succeeding generations through comprehensive and coordinated long-range planning and management designed to produce the maximum benefit for society from such coastal resources; and that the preservation and restoration of ecological systems shall be the primary guiding principal upon which environmental alteration of coastal resources shall be measured, judged and regulated."

The regulatory authority of the CRMC is generally defined by the area extending from the territorial sea limit (three miles offshore), to two hundred (200) feet inland from any coastal feature, to watersheds, and to certain activities that occur anywhere within the state.

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