The Independent — Coastal debate comes down to boundaries, or lack thereof
Protesters walk along the shoreline in front of private property on the border of Charlestown and South Kingstown during a gathering on July 6 to show support for the public’s right to shoreline access throughout the state. Photo: Michael Derr
July 13, 2019
By Bill Seymour — SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Exactly defining public access along beaches — and other areas around Rhode Island’s coast — is a complex undertaking requiring some serious study, said Virginia Lee, who has studied the issue and is an author of guides to public access to shorefront areas.
But John Boehnert, coastal property lawyer and author of a book on waterfront real estate, maintains that the issue is more a property rights matter than a public access infringement. The current definition for public access works well, he said.
This divide between public and private property rights has riled owners of homes whose values often approach or topple $1 million while angering a less wealthy group who want access to as much of the state’s coastline as law allows. For them, it’s the entire shoreline.
Some advocates for unfettered shoreline use say that an old tidal measurement is outdated and the public right-of-way should be as simple 10 feet into the sand from the water’s edge.
Lee said, however, that may not work easily. There is much complexity involving state and federal regulations regarding use of public trust waters that can include tidal basins, rocky shores, historical shorelines and tidal rivers among a variety of natural resources.
The public trust doctrine requires that state and federal governments not disrupt public use of designated resources for the benefit of the people, according to the Water Education Foundation.
“It is important to know that over time, boundaries for public trust waters change. With sea level rising, it’s even more important that it still be a shifting line and this adds to the complexity. People are not often used to dealing with all of this,” said Lee.
She is author of Public Access to the Rhode Island Coast” and “Providing Public Access to the Shore: The Role of Coastal Zone Management Programs.”
“It affects everywhere the tide reaches,” said Lee, former U.S. Program Manager, Coastal Resources Center in the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.
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