ecoRI News — Complaint Filed to Protect Napatree Point from Access Way Through Dunes
The Watch Hill Fire District and The Watch Hill Conservancy has filed a complaint in Rhode Island Superior Court against the town of Westerly concerning Napatree Point. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)
May 8, 2023
By Frank Carini / ecoRI News Staff — WESTERLY — Every summer Napatree Point, a slender strip of land at the mouth of Little Narragansett Bay, where the Pawcatuck River empties into Block Island Sound, is swarmed with tourists, boaters, beachgoers, hikers, anglers, and nature observers. Finding a scrap of beach can be difficult, as last year some 40,000 people visited the sandy peninsula.
This year, longtime debate about the control of an access path — so-called “Fort Road,” the name locals use to refer to the pathway from Watch Hill to Napatree Point — to the popular Westerly destination finally spilled over.
Last week, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP, the Providence law firm representing the Watch Hill Fire District and The Watch Hill Conservancy, filed a complaint in Rhode Island Superior Court naming the town of Westerly, various local officials, and the state of Rhode Island in a case involving the fate of Fort Road.
In a statement announcing the May 4 complaint, a Watch Hill Fire District (WHFD) spokesperson noted the organizations are “seeking to protect the fragile Napatree Point ecosystem by preventing the Town of Westerly from a ‘taking’ that violates property rights and could potentially result in a 20-foot wide road or right of way through the Bay Street parking lots all the way through the Napatree Point dunes.”
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