Sometimes the right company for the job is the one that can cut through the red tape. In the case of the Boathouse project along the Pettaquamscutt River in Rhode Island, Davitt Design Build, Inc. was that company. They were able to work with Coastal Resources Management Council to get the project approved and work through building restrictions to make this Saunderstown, R.I. remodeled boathouse work.

Davitt Design Build, Inc. headed by president and CEO Matt Davitt, CGR, CMB, CR, started in 1982. After working for a contractor at the time, Davitt decided to go it alone and built a company that was at approximately $6.2 million in gross income last year. Davitt Design Build focuses their attention on waterfront properties in all of Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.

The Boathouse project was a referral from a boathouse project Davitt was working on five doors down. The homeowner went to see the work being done on his neighbor’s house and decided he might have found a company that could help him out, because he needed someone who understood how to get the project through the coastal management agency and building inspection.

Red Tape

“Today they wouldn’t let you build this boathouse this close to the water,” says Davitt. “Because I work with coastal resources all the time, we got the project under a maintenance assent to maintain the existing structure. That’s what we focus on, helping our clients get through the coastal process because sometimes it can be a real pain getting projects approved”

The boathouse overhangs the Pettaquamscutt River, also known in the area as the Narrow River which is part of the Coastal Resources Managment Council. The council is a management agency with regulatory functions who’s members are appointed representatives of the public, state and local government, and a staff of professional engineers, biologists, environmental scientists, and marine resources specialists. It is a state agency created by the General Assembly that balances economic considerations with environmental protection. This agency controls development along the coast and balances economic development with environmental conservation. For home-owners living on the water, this means that all remodeling taking place near the shoreline have a little more than local building codes to consider. Even vegetation is regulated by what can and cannot be planted and how much planting is needed to avoid erosion by the ocean.