A panel from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council met Tuesday to discuss its review of the potential access point, which would open up a nearly two-mile barrier beach that’s currently blocked off to the general public. Afternoon host Dave Fallon spoke with our South County Bureau Reporter Alex Nunes about Tuesday’s meeting and what’s next.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TRANSCRIPT:
Dave Fallon: This is The Public’s Radio. I’m Dave Fallon. A legal battle over a contested right-of-way to the beach in Westerly has become a flashpoint in the debate over shoreline access. A panel from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council met Tuesday to discuss its review of the potential access point, which would open up a nearly two-mile barrier beach that’s currently blocked off to the general public. And our South County Bureau Reporter Alex Nunes joins me now with more details about that. Alex, thanks for stepping in here.
Alex Nunes: Thank you, Dave.
Fallon: The CRMC’s Rights-of-Way Subcommittee met Tuesday night, as we said, about this disputed right-of-way. It’s called the Spring Avenue Extension, it’s located in the Weekapaug section of Westerly. So what has happened?
Nunes: So the meeting, in the meeting, the CRMC’s attorney, Anthony DeSisto, he did most of the talking. … Westerly Town Council sent this to CRMC a little over two years ago, and people have been eager to hear from CRMC. So it really seemed like he was establishing the tone of, this is our top priority right now for the Rights-of-Way Subcommittee, we’re going to be looking into this, we’ve gotten a lot of submissions already on this. It is a contested right-of-way. There’s been some 500 pages of submissions from attorneys sent already. So he basically said, I’ll be going through that, synthesizing it, giving you my thoughts on it, and then we’ll be scheduling public hearings on this.
Fallon: So there is disagreement about whether this right-of-way is actually public or not. Let’s run down the disagreements and who’s disagreeing about what exactly.
Nunes: So this barrier beach, it’s in the Weekapaug section of Westerly within the bounds of the Weekapaug Fire District, which is a state-chartered fire district. It doesn’t have a fire department, its duties are more around managing land and managing beaches. And this fire district says that it’s the rightful owner of this right-of-way, that it had belonged to a real estate company that they acquired and then dissolved. They don’t want it open. Right now it’s fenced off and there’s vegetation there. And they intend to keep it that way. Members of the public, beachgoers who want to be able to use this area and can’t right now, they think that it is public. People used it a long time ago. There wasn’t a problem accessing it. They think that photos, deeds, plat maps, postcards all demonstrate that this was meant to be a public right-of-way. A retired Assistant Attorney General for Rhode Island, Michael Rubin, has gotten involved in this case on a pro bono level. There’s an attorney in Connecticut named Anthony Palazzolo, who is always sure to tell people he’s not a licensed attorney in Rhode Island. He’s representing himself, but he has a lot of skill in this area and has done a lot of research and submitted to CRMC as well. The attorney general of Rhode Island has weighed in, and is urging CRMC to designate this right-of-way public and the nonprofit Save the Bay has also signaled its support for making this a[n] open public right-of-way. So it’s really that group versus the Weekapaug Fire District.
Fallon: Alex, it’s been a lot of attention with this case. Why so? Why this specific right-of-way issue? How does this case relate in general to shoreline access issues?
Nunes: Well, there’s a couple of reasons why people really care about this particular right-of-way. It’s right at the beginning of this barrier beach, the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach, which is 1.7 miles. There’s currently no designated public access point there across, you know, to get to this 1.7-mile barrier beach. So by comparison, I was looking at some numbers that I have – Misquamicut State Beach is 0.61 miles; Scarborough State Beach is 0.87 [miles]; Roger Wheeler State Beach in Narragansett, 0.41 [miles]. So all those state saltwater beaches combined are about the same length as this barrier beach. So people really feel like, we want to get there, we want to be able to access it in the summer, and this is this is really the best opportunity. There’s also this underlying tension, this bigger picture to it where people feel like, there’s this general issue in Rhode Island where people who live in the shoreline communities who have bought very expensive homes in these areas, that they’ve been able to privatize beaches and take control of them, and block everyone else out. So people are really adamant in that sense, that they want to get access. And this is sort of, this particular right-of-way is emblematic of that larger issue.
Fallon: So it’s a prime piece of real estate, as far as public access and also real estate in general, right?
Nunes: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I think this area is particularly important to the property owners in the Weekapaug Fire District in the sense that, if you have access to a 1.7-mile stretch of barrier beach that is exclusive to you or whoever you let go there, that’s pretty important for your property values. So they have incentive to keep this closed off – and, they think, the right to do it, too.
Fallon: What’s it like to go down there and visit? And how do things play out when you visit?
Nunes: So if you go this time of year, you won’t have any problems. You can go out there and walk during the winter. But if you go there during the summer, it can be pretty ugly scenes where people get turned away, can get into arguments. People say that, you know, the security guards can be aggressive with them, property owners in that area will, some people say, chase them down and make them get out of there. I’ve been there a couple of times for reporting where I was told, just turn around my car and get out of there, you’re not welcome there. Sometimes shoreline access advocates will go there with video cameras and try to videotape their experience. And then the property owners will videotape them back, sometimes the police get called. So it’s a pretty, pretty tense place to be if someone is there who wants to access who they are trying to block.
Fallon: Any sense, with all of this legal back and forth, about how long it’s going to take to resolve this issue?
Nunes: I would say it’s still at least months away. CRMC’s attorney on Tuesday was saying that he wants this to get moving along in the first half of this year. And he was speaking in the sense that that would actually be almost like an expedited path for it. There’s just so much evidence to go through – maps and deeds going back over 100 years. So – and because of all the public attention that’s on this, you know, from access advocates to media attention – I think they really want to do it right and do a thorough job. And the process would be that the Rights-of-Way Subcommittee would review it and make a recommendation for designation for it to be public to the full CRMC Council, and then they would have to make the final decision.
Fallon: We’ve been speaking with our South County Bureau Reporter Alex Nunes. Alex, thanks for joining us.
Nunes: Thank you, Dave.
Fallon: This is The Public’s Radio.
