EastBayRI — Bill aims to protect residents from prosecution over shoreline access

PROVIDENCE — The right of Rhode Islanders to access the shoreline has been inalienable since it was written into the state constitution in 1843. Yet exactly where the public shoreline ends and private property begins has always been as tumultuous and unsettled as the waves washing along Rhode Island’s shores.

A 1982 state Supreme Court case established the boundary of the public’s shore access at the mean high tide line, defined as the average of high tides over an 18.6-year cycle, which continually changes with the shifting sands of the coast. The Supreme Court’s decision has led to much conflict because it’s nearly impossible for anyone walking along the shore to know where that shifting line is. 

Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown) and House Minority Leader Blake A. Filippi have proposed legislation (2020-H 7755) that takes a different route to finally secure the public’s constitutionally guaranteed shoreline rights.

The legislation would prevent the criminal prosecution of anyone who attempts to exercise their constitutional shoreline rights on a sandy or rocky shore within 10 feet of the most recent high tide line.

…