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tdalglish@eastbaynewspapers.com

TIVERTON — Buoyed by a 5-0 vote of the Town Council last October, the Tiverton Yacht Club is poised to rise from the ashes. That vote approved a zoning designation meant to allow the Tiverton Yacht Club to rebuild a clubhouse that burned in 2003.

“Our plans are to begin rebuilding as soon as we can,” said Greg Jones, the club’s new commodore. “We’re putting the final touches on our plans for the clubhouse, which will be a one-story building in the footprint of the old three story building. It will have a large function room and wrap around porches.”

“The next step is to secure building permits,” a process he said that could start in the next two weeks, “and then we hope to build the foundation this spring.”

The older of the two suits brought by abutters, an action now pending in the state Supreme Court, claims that the club’s use of the marina (on the water side of Riverside Drive) is an unlawful expansion of a non-conforming use, chiefly in the sense that a septic system is considered a “use,” and modern septic systems required now at the waterfront location must be larger than in years past, and therefore the use is expanded, allegedly unlawfully.

A more recent lawsuit, filed in late November by David Campbell and his spouse, and John E. Moran and his spouse, the same abutters to the north and south respectively, challenges the October zoning decision of the Tiverton Town council.

Instead of changing the zoning designation of the entire neighborhood, that decision created a waterfront-related “floating” zone that applied to just the Tiverton Yacht Club property, a zoning device said to be similar to that utilized for Starwood and the town industrial park.

The council decision came after several months of hearings that began in June and that involved numerous witnesses and much evidence.

Residents of 11 properties near the club, including the Campbells and the Morans, fought the zoning amendment during the hearing process. The recent lawsuit, however, has been filed by just two of the nearby residents, the Campbells and Morans.

The 10-page complaint in the lawsuit lists 56 allegations of fact. Of that total, 15 involve contentions that the new zoning changes made by the council are unlawful or legally defective.

Another 12 points assert that the council decision is “not consistent with” the town’s comprehensive plan or “represents unlawful spot zoning.”

In the past, litigation against the club since 2003 opposing the club’s efforts to rebuild has been defended by the club and its own lawyers. Wayne Karzenski, the club’s former commodore, whose two-year term coincidentally ended the night of the council’s October vote, estimated last fall that the club has spent around $300,000 defending itself against Mr. Campbell’s suits.

The town council vote changes the financial dynamics in the present litigation. Since the town’s new zoning ordinance will be defended by the town, it will be the town and its taxpayers that foot the legal bills incurred in the litigation. Mr. Campbell is representing himself.

“Our neighbor has been very aggressive,” Mr. Jones said of Mr. Campbell, “and I’m sure he’s not going to stop. He says no one wants the clubhouse rebuilt more than he, but he’s done more to stop us than anyone, and thrown every barrier in our path that he can think of.”

The Tiverton club’s devastating fire of 2003 was virtually replicated last week when Cranston’s historic Edgewood Yacht Club burned to the ground in the early morning of Wednesday, Jan. 12.

The 102 year-old Edgewood clubhouse collapsed in flames into the water — it had been built on pilings — after a fire not believed to be suspicious in nature.

Like the Tiverton club, Edgewood had a long history of family-oriented sailing activities that generations of children had participated in. The building was said to be beautiful by those who knew it.

Mr. Jones said, “We were of course saddened by the loss of the Edgewood Clubhouse due to fire. Some of our members have ties that that club, and we certainly understand what the club is going through having suffered a similar loss.”

Mr. Jones said the rebuilding in Cranston might be easier than it has been in Tiverton. “It sounds like their neighbors favor the idea.”

“My advice to the club is that they will find the strength through their membership to reconstruct. It will be a long road, but in the end they will be stronger and better. I sent the commodore of the club an e-mail on the day of the fire to offer to help them in any way we Can. Since then, we have been in contact with them and have discussed some of the permitting issues they will face. Theirs too was a 100 year old building. so new zoning and code regulations will apply — but hopefully they won’t have to deal with the same legal issues that have hampered us.”