In recent years, the Spring Avenue Extension right-of-way in Westerly has become one of the more talked about paths to the South County shoreline, even though it’s been out of use for decades.
It’s located at the start of the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach, a 1.7 mile, undeveloped peninsula where no designated public path to the ocean exists and access is restricted in the summer months to local property owners and their guests.
Today, Spring Avenue is blocked by a rusty chain link fence and covered over with vegetation. But striking to many is the fact that it appears as an open right-of-way on town property maps and in dated photos, and you can still find old-timers who recall the days when they walked the right-of-way unobstructed.
To this day, there’s even a row of public parking spaces at the beginning of Spring Avenue, a point Westerly resident and shoreline access advocate Ellen Kane finds telling.
“No one has common sense to think that those spaces were there so people could park and smell the ocean and hear the ocean,” Kane said in an interview. “They parked there so they could walk to the ocean.”
The reason Spring Avenue Extension remains blocked today is simple. While shoreline access advocates insist it’s public, property owners in the affluent and exclusive Weekapaug Fire District say the path belongs to the district, and they have no intent nor obligation to open it up for public use.
Property owners in Weekapaug say they want privacy, quiet surroundings and the general public to use other beaches that are already set aside for them, like the bustling Misquamicut State Beach. That’s partly why they’re adamant about keeping Spring Avenue blocked off, but also why shoreline access advocates are so committed to opening it up.
Spring Ave may be a relatively small piece of land, but with calls for greater equity in beach access growing in the state, the Weekapaug Fire District’s insistence on blocking Spring Ave represents something more to people like Ellen Kane.
“I think it’s an incredible overreach,” she said. “I think it’s greedy. I think it’s legally dubious. And I think, hopefully, the CRMC is going to take a look at all that and acknowledge that ‘Yes, indeed, the public used it for decades, and the public use should be restored.’” 
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha agrees Spring Avenue should be public. Late last year, he wrote a letter to the executive director of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council, which is reviewing Spring Avenue for potential designation as a public right-of-way.
Neronha declined to be interviewed for this story, but he told CRMC “uncontradicted evidence” like plat maps, historic photos and postcards show the path is public by incipient dedication. That’s when a property owner offers a right-of-way for general use and the public takes action to accept it.
If CRMC does designate Spring Avenue a state-recognized right-of-way, that would also empower the attorney general’s office to defend it.
Michael Rubin is a retired assistant attorney general for Rhode Island who is working pro bono to argue for the opening up of Spring Avenue as a public right-of-way. He believes Spring Avenue is also public because, he says, stamps on a 1939 plat map show the town formally accepted it.
“There are instances where this topic of access to the shore is given over to populist rhetoric. This is not one of those cases,” Rubin said. “We’re basing our case on what’s in the Registry of Deeds. We’re basing our case on things that you can bank on. As a matter of fact, it’s the things that banks do bank on when they give mortgages.”
But the fire district isn’t going to relinquish control of Spring Avenue Extension without a fight.
The fire district is a state-chartered entity with taxing authority but no fire department, opting instead to outsource those services. It operates more like a real estate company, combined with a neighborhood association and a beach club. Just this month it sold one of its vacant lots for $2.3 million. The district owns more than 60 acres of coastal land, including much of the barrier beach.
It has shown it’s willing to open up its coffers wide to keep Spring Avenue blocked off. In response to a recent public records request seeking invoices for legal work related to Spring Ave, the fire district provided bills from three separate law firms totaling more than $100,000.
After Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha contacted CRMC, the Weekapaug Fire District moderator sent CRMC’s executive director a letter, suggesting the fire district’s due process rights may have been violated.
That and other moves by the fire district have led many people, like Westerly Town Council Vice President Kevin Lowther, to conclude the fight over Spring Avenue is headed in an increasingly litigious direction.
“We know that they plan to appeal any decision that’s made by CRMC that would declare it as a [public] right-of-way,” Lowther said in an interview. “So we’re prepared for and expecting litigation from the Weekapaug Fire District basically no matter what happens, unless it is not declared a [public] right-of-way.”
Because of the perceived likelihood of a lawsuit, some shoreline access advocates are encouraging the Westerly Town Council to remain neutral on Spring Avenue so the town doesn’t get drawn into a costly legal battle. They say the state is better equipped to defend itself against a lawsuit, and a court battle involving Westerly could end in a future town council capitulating to the fire district.
But other activists think the town should take a stronger stance and start advocating for the opening of the right-of-way, regardless of what the Weekapaug Fire District might do.
“They’re like a schoolyard bully,” Westerly resident Thomas Micele said of the fire district during the public comment period at a recent town council meeting. “You know, it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna push them, push them, push them. They don’t have the guts to stand up to us.’ Well, when does a bully stop picking on a kid? When the kid fights back…You have to stand up and fight.”
The Weekapaug Fire District maintains the path was meant to be used by property owners in a Weekapaug subdivision and deeds and maps going back to the 1800s support their claim. They say Spring Avenue belonged to a local real estate company they acquired and then dissolved.
The district did not respond to an interview request from The Public’s Radio. At Westerly Town Council meetings, district members mostly communicate through an attorney. But in 2020, just before town councilors sent the right of way to CRMC, several Weekapaug property owners called into a video meeting to defend what they maintain is their right to block the public from accessing the beach at Spring Avenue.
Weekapaug Fire District resident Martha Hosp also reminded town councilors of the generosity of Weekapaug property owners, recalling how they sewed masks during the pandemic for a nonprofit fundraiser.
“They love Westerly and support its many municipal and charitable organizations,” Hosp said. “They’re generous with their time and talent and with donations…They simply ask that they be treated fairly and that the town respect the fire district’s legal ownership of its rights-of-way.”
The Coastal Resources Management Council Rights-of-way Subcommittee’s meeting Tuesday will provide a public update and status check-in on the CRMC’s investigation into Spring Avenue Extension. The committee could also decide to hold a public hearing at a later date where lawyers can present arguments and evidence, and members of the public can give testimony.
After more than two years of waiting for a decision, many are eager to hear CRMC’s final verdict on whether Spring Avenue is a public path to the ocean and a remote stretch of barrier beach. But that’s almost certainly still some time away.
Alex Nunes can be reached at anunes@thepublicsradio.org
