House approves bill to study shoreline access
Here's the news release on the study commission:
In an effort to identify ways to stem the
tide of conflicts over the public’s access to the shore, the House of Representatives
will study the issue of lateral shoreline access under a resolution introduced
by Rep. Terri Cortvriend and approved by the House.
The resolution (2021-H 5469A) creates a 12-member special
legislative commission to study and provide recommendations on the issues
relating to lateral access along the Rhode Island shoreline, with a goal of
reporting back to the General Assembly next spring.
“There have been disagreements about where the public’s access ends and private property begins for centuries. While there have been efforts to clarify the public’s rights over the years, rising sea levels and erosion are changing the coast, and creating more conflicts along the way,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown). “There are many questions about how Rhode Island is supposed to determine and protect access rights, and we need to identify some clearer answers. I very much look forward to the interesting and important work of this commission.”
The right of Rhode Islanders to access the shoreline has
been inalienable since it was written into the state constitution in 1843. Yet
exactly where the public shoreline ends and private property begins has always
been as tumultuous and unsettled as the waves washing along Rhode Island’s
shores.
A 1982 state Supreme Court case established the boundary
of the public’s shore access at the mean high tide line, defined as the average
of high tides over an 18.6-year cycle, which continually changes with the
shifting sands of the coast. The Supreme Court’s decision has led to much
conflict because it is nearly impossible for anyone walking along the shore to
know where that shifting line is.
In 1986, the voters of Rhode Island overwhelmingly
supported an amendment to the state constitution strengthening the description
of the privileges to the shore enjoyed by Rhode Islanders.
Last
year, Representative Cortvriend proposed
legislation that took a new approach, aimed not at defining legal property
lines, but preventing the criminal prosecution of anyone who attempts to
exercise their constitutional shoreline rights on a sandy or rocky shore within
10 feet of the most recent high tide line. The bill was introduced days before
the state shut down due to the pandemic and was never heard.
This year, Representative Cortvriend reintroduced
the legislation, later amending it to create the study commission to take a
broader look at the complicated issues surrounding shoreline access and
defining the shore.
Under the resolution, the commission will include two House
members from different parties who each represent coastal communities, a member
of the public from a coastal community, a land use attorney, a retired Rhode
Island judge and representatives from the Coastal Resources Management Council,
the Rhode Island Realtors Association or a homeowner’s association, the Marine
Affairs Institute and R.I. Sea Grant Legal program at Roger Williams
University, the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island,
the Rhode Island Society of Professional Land Surveyors, Rhode Island Attorney
General’s Office and either Clean Ocean Access or Save the Bay.
Representative
Cortvriend said she became aware of the need to address the ambiguities of
shoreline access through her legislative work involving sea rise and
resiliency. Along the way, she also learned that the issue is an economic one
for Rhode Island.
“Beaches and shores play such an integral role in our
tourism industry. We are constitutionally obligated to protect Rhode Islanders’
lateral access to the shore, and failure to do so could potentially cost us
money,” she said.
