The Public’s Radio — Summer is months away, but RI’s shoreline access debate has no off-season
Property owner Keith Wilcox, second from left, speaks with shoreline rights advocates during a seaweed gathering protest, on June 26, 2021. ALEX NUNES - THE PUBLIC'S RADIO
Jan 28, 2022
By Alex Nunes — A special House commission set up last year to study the hot button topic in Rhode Island is moving into the homestretch on its work. The panel is tasked with making recommendations to state lawmakers on how to address longstanding and escalating conflicts between beachfront property owners and the public–conflicts that have only escalated during the pandemic. This week members of the commission began discussing exactly what they’ll say in their upcoming report.
Host Joe Tasca spoke with The Public’s Radio South County Bureau Reporter Alex Nunes about the commission's work. Listen to the discussion or read a transcript of their conversation below.
TASCA: Hi, Alex.
NUNES: Hi, Joe.
TASCA: Alex, this commission has been meeting regularly since late last summer. What have they been up to, and where are they at now?
NUNES: The first part of this process was hearing testimony from experts in areas related to shoreline access–so property rights, coastal science, marine law, and privileges of the shore under the Rhode Island Constitution. The commission even traveled to South County for a public hearing that dozens of shoreline access advocates came out to. Now they need to decide what the big takeaways are and what the legislature should do. The commission’s chairs–representatives Terri Cortvriend and Blake Filippi–have indicated that they want to come away with proposed legislation that can help settle some of these shoreline disputes.
TASCA: Remind us what the issue is here, what are people at odds about?
NUNES: So shoreline access is a complicated issue with different aspects to it. But one relates to where people are legally allowed to be along the shore in Rhode Island. That’s specifically what this commission was set up to look at. The Rhode Island Constitution guarantees what are called privileges of the shore, including fishing, collecting seaweed, swimming, and walking along the shore. And this is for the entire Rhode Island shoreline. But the Constitution doesn’t say what the boundaries of the shore are. So that’s where the dispute is: Where can you legally be along the water? We’ve been using a court ruling from the 1980s that says you have to stay below the 18.6-year mean high tide line. Shoreline access advocates say that’s absurd: It’s not enough room on the beach, and no one knows where that line is anyway. But property owners say they pay a lot in taxes to their towns and are entitled to the beachfront in their backyards. Last year, Representative Cortvriend introduced a bill that sought to basically decriminalize trespassing along the shore. That failed, and I think that’s now seen as being too indirect a way of dealing with the problem, and people want to establish a line that’s specific and clear.
…