PROVIDENCE — An engineer for the Coastal Resources Management Council offered testimony yesterday contradicting earlier statements by other witnesses that Chairman Michael Tikoian preferred a smaller expansion plan for a controversial marina project.

Danni Goulet, the CRMC engineer and dredging coordinator, said during an evidentiary hearing in Superior Court that he created a smaller plan with a 100-foot dock extension. The alternate plan also allows expansion westward, parallel to the existing Champlin’s Marina, with the option of dredging to increase the water depth for boats.

Goulet said he created the plan under the direction of Grover Fugate, the CRMC executive director, after Goulet reviewed records on the expansion proposal.

Goulet testified that he showed the alternative plan and computer slides of the proposal to three CRMC subcommittee members before a vote in October 2005.

But Goulet said he did not discuss the plan with Tikoian or show him the slides until a few days after the vote took place. Goulet said he showed the plan to Tikoian for about a half hour before a meeting with Governor Carcieri, and during an information meeting with Carcieri, former Deputy Chief of Staff Jeffrey Grybowski, Mark Adelman, a policy analyst for Carcieri, and Fugate.

No one who saw the alternative plan offered any comments, Goulet said

Goulet’s testimony countered allegations that Tikoian favored the smaller marina plan and tried to influence other council members to agree with his opinion.

Last week, CRMC subcommittee members Gerald Zarrella and Thomas Ricci testified that Tikoian tried to persuade them to vote for a 100-foot dock expansion. They said they voted for a 170-foot expansion after reviewing the evidence for the proposal. Adelman, a third witness, also testified that Tikoian said the alternative plan would be a good compromise.

The legal battle over Champlin’s Marina has been going on for four years.

Champlin’s wants to expand the marina with 4,000 feet of piers, moving 240 feet farther into the Great Salt Pond. Many Block Island residents argued against it and the New Shoreham Town Council rejected the proposal, saying it turns over public watersfor private use.

After 23 hearings, the CRMC subcommittee voted 3 to 1 for a smaller, 170-foot expansion in October 2005. The expansion was rejected when the full council voted 5 to 5 in February 2006.

In response, Champlin’s Marina filed a lawsuit in Superior Court, accusing the CRMC of “irregularities.”

Judge Netti C. Vogel agreed in January to hold the evidentiary hearings because she said wanted to learn if Tikoian’s position as a liaison to the governor’s office “blurred his role” as an impartial CRMC member.

The Champlin’s Marina proposal was Goulet’s first time working on a contested project, he said yesterday.

Goulet testified that he showed the alternative plan in private to 7 of the 10 CRMC members before the final vote. The council members who did not ask to see the 100-foot plan or slides were Zarrella, Raymond C. Coia and W. Michael Sullivan, the director of the state Department of Environmental Management. Zarrella and Coia voted for the 170-foot plan, while Sullivan rejected the proposal.

The evidentiary hearings will continue at 2 p.m. today. A mediation session with U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lovegreen is set for April 10. It is unclear when the hearings will end or if it would have any impact on the mediation session.

Michelle J. Lee is a fellow with the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting.

mlee@projo.com