The Boston Globe — ‘We will get access’: Study commission hears from R.I.’ers on shoreline rights

Property owners erect fences and post signs marking their territory on Charlestown Town Beach. Beach access has been a contentious issue as private landowners seek to limit visitors. LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

Nov 18, 2021

By Brian Amaral — Panel aims to make recommendations about access early next year

RICHMOND, RI — For two and a half hours, Rhode Islanders told a House study commission that the state’s law around shoreline access needed to change. They didn’t have to travel too far from where the problems are happening to make their case: The House panel went to Chariho Middle School in Wood River Junction to take the pulse of people who live along and use the shore.

The pulse was running pretty high: People told stories about standing in wet surf or floating in canoes, in areas that were clearly public-trust land, as private homeowners accosted them. They recounted arguments over digging clams (”They’re taking our clams!” one wayward property owner allegedly said) and parking cars and casting lures. They mentioned problem areas in South Kingstown and Narragansett, in Middletown and Portsmouth and Newport, Charlestown and Westerly, from under-the-radar fire districts in Warwick to the Swift property in Watch Hill (Taylor’s mansion).

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