The House Judiciary Committee passed the shoreline access bill Thursday night. One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Terri Cortvriend, says she expects it will come to the full House next week for a floor discussion and vote.
The bill is an amended version of the original legislation that came out of a commission formed last year to study shoreline access. It defines where the public can be along Rhode Island’s shore as being up to 6 feet landward from the wrack line where seaweed and other debris wash up. The earlier version set the threshold at 10 feet landward.
The bill says beachgoers can exercise their shoreline rights on wet or dry sand and rocky beach, but those rights don’t extend to where there is no passable shore, rocky cliffs, sea walls, or land above the vegetation line.
Rhode Island’s Constitution guarantees so-called privileges of the shore, like fishing, passing and gathering seaweed, but does not specifically outline where those rights apply. Disputes between beachgoers and property owners over where the public can be have led to increasing calls for legislative action in recent years.
Alex Nunes can be reached at anunes@thepublicsradio.org
