The Public’s Radio — Feds complete Watch Hill Lighthouse transfer, and public access guarantees aren’t included
The Watch Hill Lighthouse in Westerly. Credit: Alex Nunes/The Public's Radio
Jan 4, 2024
By Alex Nunes — The official transfer of the property deed to a private nonprofit comes after months of delays and legal research that didn’t result in public access protections to the historic property and popular fishing grounds.
The U.S. General Services Administration said this week it has finalized the transfer of the historic Watch Hill Lighthouse to a private nonprofit and officially executed the deed to the property for its new owner, the Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association.
The planned transfer was first announced last July by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed. It set off an outcry for months from fishermen and shoreline access advocates who worried giving the federal land to a private nonprofit in Watch Hill would threaten future public use of the popular fishing spot.
The Lighthouse Keepers said it intended to maintain public access to the property but would not share the application the group submitted to the National Park Service for the property.
Application materials released through a federal Freedom of Information Act request showed the Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association’s attorney had told the federal government the group could not guarantee public access to the property, because it did not believe explicit public rights existed over the narrow Lighthouse Road that’s long been presumed to be private.
Reed’s office contacted the National Park Service and General Services Administration to reiterate “that continued public access must be central to a conveyance agreement,” his spokesperson, Chip Unruh, said last year.
But the General Services Administration said it was unable to include public access guarantees to the roughly four-acre property over the access road after looking for potential public rights in real estate records and communicating with Westerly Town Solicitor William Conley, who was tasked with investigating the status of Lighthouse Road.
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