The Day — ‘Free and unimpeded’: Appeals court upholds beachgoers’ rights in Old Lyme
Nov 7, 2022
By Elizabeth Regan — OLD LYME, CT — The “unorganized public” is victorious again in a fight for beach access going back to 1952.
Seventy years ago and again in 2018, residents of the Sound View Beach area took Miami Beach Association to court to force the removal of a fence standing between members of the public and an 800-foot-long stretch of sand left to them in perpetuity by a developer.
Then and now, courts affirmed the land was dedicated for public use and ordered the fence taken down. They cited the promise of “free and unimpeded use and enjoyment” of the swath of beach that had been in place since developer Henry J. Hillard deeded it to the "unorganized general public“ in the 1880s.
The 23-page decision from a three-judge panel in the state Appellate Court officially will be released Tuesday. It unanimously upholds the 2020 decision by New London Superior Court Judge Kimberly A. Knox requiring Miami Beach Association to take down the fence it had erected at the end of the 2016 beach season and to stop charging people a "clean beach fee” of $5 to $10.
Leadership of the otherwise private enclave instituted the clean beach program due to littering, drinking, urinating, fighting, and sexual relations taking place on the beach, according to court documents. A resident testified about arriving home on one occasion to find strangers having sex against the homeowner’s stone patio and on another occasion to find strangers sitting on the patio table having lunch.
Miami Beach Association President Mark Mongillo in a phone interview Monday described the appellate decision, which was based on the initial judgment that was handed down in 1953, as “unfair.”
“This is not 1953,” he said. “We’re approaching 2023 and the social atmosphere and the behavior of the general public is extremely different than it was in 1953.”
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