The Independent — Legislative action and a potential legal battle loom as RI debates changes to shoreline access law

A new report recommends legislators codify the public’s right to access Rhode Island’s shoreline at a distance measured as the high tide line plus 10 feet. This change forms the basis for a new bill co-sponsored by Rep. Blake Filippi earlier this week that, if passed, would likely lead to a lengthy legal battle with local homeowners who say the rule unfairly diminishes the value of their property. The right-of-way at the end of Pilgrim Avenue in Narragansett is pictured above. Photo: Michael Derr

April 2, 2022

By Bill Seymour — It’s an ambiguous and contentious line in the sand.

The state constitution guarantees the right to ocean access for the public. But private landowners claim their beachfront property rights exclude the public.

State law draws the line within which the public must stay when they access a shore fronting private property. But that line, which has long been murky and hard to locate, needs to be higher and drier – about 10 feet above the high-tide line – to be useful for the public, according to a special legislative commission issuing a report this week.

A new law proposed last week adopts this recommendation. It will first be considered by the House of Representatives and any approval moves it to the state senate and the governor for consideration.

Activists on both sides are already lobbying legislators. With access advocates on one side, and homeowners on the other, the sides are fighting over where this mark in the sand goes.

“Basically it (the proposal) doesn’t let people walk across a bulkhead or front yard, only just along sandy and rocky shorelines,” Rep. Blake Filippi said.

His district, which includes Block Island, Charlestown and parts of South Kingstown and Westerly, has plenty of beaches and he doesn’t see this change infringing on property rights of oceanfront homeowners.

Those homeowners see a different view from their windows – what was formerly an exclusive private beach would become de facto public property.

“We believe when applying Rhode Island and U.S. Supreme Court decisions this amounts to a taking of private property. When property is taken, government needs to compensate,” said Chris Boyle, an attorney and lobbyist representing a group of property owners opposed to changing current law.

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