Projo — Shoreline access commission agrees law should change, but has yet to settle on new boundary

Rep Terri Cortvriend previously introduced legislation that would have protected people from being charged with trespassing when they’re within 10 feet of the most recent high-tide mark. David DelPoio / The Providence Journal, File

Jan 28, 2022

By Antonia Noori Farzan — Most members of the special legislative commission on lateral shoreline access agree that it's absurd to use 18.6-year metonymic cycles to determine where the public beach ends and private property begins.

And most also agree that the "swash line," where seaweed is deposited by the last high tide, is much easier to find. 

So the main question that will be up for debate as legislation is drafted in the next few weeks will be whether people are expected to manuever through piles of seaweed — or if they can walk a short distance above it. 

The House commission — called, in full, the Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations on the Issues Relating to Lateral Access Along the Rhode Island Shoreline — aims to have draft legislation ready in time to discuss at its next meeting on Feb. 10. 

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