This joint workshop of the Newport City Council and the Energy and Environment Commission (EEC) was held on August 25, 2026, at 6:30 PM in City Council Chambers. The purpose was to discuss the future of Hazard Road, a low-lying coastal road prone to flooding and adjacent to the ecologically sensitive Gooseneck Cove salt marsh. The city has received a $50,000 grant from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank (no municipal match required) to explore long-term resilience strategies, but no funds have been spent. The meeting included presentations on the history of the road and marsh, current challenges, and potential data collection methods. Public input was solicited through verbal comments, sticky notes, and maps. No decisions were made; the workshop was the first phase of public engagement.
Being here, I know that this is a big topic of discussion for people, particularly in the um hazard road area. Um, we're gonna have a little presentation and a couple of presentations, and then we'll have the public speak. So, first of all, I'd like to us could we please just stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the public stand. One nation under God, maybe this global with liberty and justice are often. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to be starting it off uh with Teresa. Where is Teresa? Right. Here you are. Oh, and I just wanted to say uh David Carlin. Um, of course, he's a third ward representative. He will be here. He's running a little bit late as well, so it's a busy night. Okay, thank you. Great, thank you, uh, Chair Sagley and uh Chair Conklin. Uh, my name is Teresa Creen. I am the director of resilience and sustainability for the city of Newport, and we really appreciate everybody taking the time out of their schedules on a beautiful evening to be here tonight to talk about Hazard Road. Um, due to the frequent flooding and the fragile ecology of the surrounding marsh, the city of Newport selected Hazard Road to explore potential long-term strategies to improve roadway resilience and maintain access along the section of roadway connecting Wickham Road and Ruggles Avenue to Ocean Drive. The city is working with Project Partners Save the Bay, and Wendley Ferguson from Save the Bay is here tonight to kick off this initial phase of the project, which focuses on existing conditions and data collection. To date, no grant funds or municipal funds have been spent on this effort. This joint City Council Environment and Energy Commission workshop will provide the city council and the EEC an overview and the public, excuse me, of why this project was selected and will provide an opportunity for residents and property owners to share thoughts, concerns, and ideas as part of the data collection process. As immediate abutters, input and for the general public, input is important to us, and we welcome your ideas for preserving the scenic roadway and wildlife hotspot in the community while we work to improve its long-term resilience and protect the surrounding natural environment. We have several maps that you'll see in the slide presentation. We also have sticky notes and pens, and we want to welcome everyone to write down any knowledge, thoughts, comments, um opinions that you have related to this project. This is really meant to be inclusive. We really want to hear what you have to say, and we want to share the knowledge that we've pulled together so far in making sense of what the future of this area of the city will look like. So with that, we have a short slide presentation. I'm gonna hand it over to City Planner Hayden McDermott. Hayden will then hand it over to resilience planner uh Christina Truitt, and then I'll wrap us up and then we'll answer any questions that the commission, the council and the commission have, and then they can um uh facilitate the public input from there. Great, thank you. Hayden, take it away. Hi everyone, thanks for coming. My name's Hayden. I'm as Teresa said, I'm a planner with the city planning department, and I'm gonna go over a brief history of Gooseneck Cove and Hazard Road and previous restoration work. All right, I'm sure everyone here today knows where Hazard Road is, but to orient us, uh we're looking at Hazard Road is between Wickham Road by the high school and connects to Ocean Av by Hazard slash Gooseberry Beach. Um from pictures and maps that we're gonna use today. We'll be referencing a few points here. Today we're looking at about a quarter mile segment of Hazard Road that's one way. It's bounded by a north gate, a southern gate, and we'll reference a culvert this in the midsection. So hazard Road and Gooseneck Cove history, human activity has impacted the water flow and health of the salt marsh here for 150 years. Around 1870, the about 500 foot natural mouth of Gooseneck Cove was filled in for the construction of Ocean Av and the Greenbridge area was constructed with two undersized culverts, which severely restricted the tidal flow. About 20 years later, Hazard Road was applotted with a number of roads in the area during the height of construction of the Gilded Age summer cottages along Ocean Drive. Hazard Road was constructed across marsh peat, decaying spongy plant material, which contributed to roads settling and flooding a century later. Around 1942, the central dam here is reconstructed. It's unknown what the original date of the dam was before that, but it further restricted flow between the upland freshwater and the uh southern salt water in the middle of the marsh basin. So these impacts over a century of tidal restrictions. So the three water flow restrictions reduced salt water flow into the cove, creating a brackish, which is less salty, more freshwater, warmer environments. The reduced salinity and prolonged flooding caused the loss of the native salt marsh plants and reduction of the natural marsh area.