Laurie Bates and Rex Santerre can be seen [Anatomical Insult To Describe Mean Person] The beach seen from the house next door. They weren’t the ones who set up the beach chairs or scribbled vulgar content on them. But they don’t like chair barriers either. They, like others in the area, consider it unsightly and offensive to their neighborhood.
“This just brought clouds to the neighborhood,” Bates said. Bates is a retired economics professor whose house is called Equilibrium and his dog’s name is Pax, he said.
Since new laws were passed in Rhode Island to improve people’s rights to access the shores, in some cases neither balance nor peace is the order of today. As any economics professor will tell you, it’s not clear if correlation equates to causation, and the plural anecdote is not data. It’s hard to tell if this kind of shoreline problem is on the rise, if complaints about it are on the rise, if it’s getting more attention, or if it’s a combination.
But what is certainly true is that town and state regulators are taking steps to address the changing coastal landscape. This is the time of the year when most people go to the beach and discuss it the most. The resulting controversy, like certain beach nicknames, isn’t always suitable for publication in family-friendly newspapers. But they are being worked out bit by bit, and unless federal lawsuits get in the way, broader access will often be supported.
The new law gives people the right to approach the shore within 10 feet of any visible high tide line.
The issues that have surfaced since this summer’s passage vary, but sometimes include property owners installing new obstacles at or near the new 10-foot perimeter. The chairs on the beach next to Bates’ house didn’t appear to block the new public access zone, at least where the tide was high on a recent weekday. Bates said the chair was moved closer to the dunes a few days after the Globe’s visit.
In other cases, signs and barriers clearly attempt to discourage access as permitted by law. This includes traditional signs such as ‘private beach to wet sand’, which is no longer the case under the law (and some argue that it really wasn’t). .
And finally, some Beachgoers are arguing with property owners about what the law actually means.
For example, in a recent Westerly article, Dunn’s Corners resident Dan Roy went to Fenway Beach in the Weepapag fire district to take advantage of the new law. Security guards said he was not allowed there on multiple visits, including on a recent Friday. Roy said security guards told him he could not stay there, even if he was within 10 feet of the recognizable high tide line, as the new law stipulates that he must cross the coast.
Roy pleaded otherwise. The state constitution enshrines the following rights: but not limited to, walkway, seaweed picking, fishing, swimming. On Friday, Roy himself called the police, who sided with them. he could stay What really surprised Roy, he said, was that the security guards in the state-established fire district said otherwise.
“That’s really wrong,” said Roy.
The Weepapaw Fire District did not respond to a request for comment.
Roy then reached out to Westerly town manager Sean Lacy. Lacey was part of a group of South County town officials who recently met with the State Coastal Resource Management Council to discuss how the new law should be interpreted and enforced. As a result, people can actually put down towels, chairs, and throw frisbees if they’re below the 10-foot line.
“With those 10-foot windows, you can do whatever you normally do at the beach,” Lacy said in an interview.
CRMC spokeswoman Laura Dwyer agreed. It’s not just a law that allows passage. You can stay with towels and chairs. Part of the reason is that the law itself stipulates that:open to interpretationsaid Dwyer.
The law itself does not allow people to go on the lawn or use private cabanas or beach chairs. And in general, Dwyer said everyone should try to be polite and respectful in complying with the new law. The CRMC is committed to educating the public about the new law, but that effort is still in development.
“The goal is to continue this dialogue with all groups,” Dwyer said.
Other issues have also arisen in North Kingstown, where signs have been temporarily installed outside the town beach (within a new 10-foot public access zone) and on Green Hill Beach in South Kingstown, where no one has been identified. Ka reportedly set up a sign near it. Rack line with Coast Guard emblem.
False signage has always been a problem, but now it seems to be getting a lot of attention. Perhaps it’s because the problem itself is growing and there’s more awareness of it, said Kate Brown, a shore access advocate whose friend saw the sign in South Kingstown. .
Brown said property owners are “very committed to putting their lines on the sand.”
Elsewhere, police put forward the theory that problems will arise while everyone understands what the new law means. In a well-known incident in Middletown, a beach visitor was blocked from reaching the end of a public walkway by bushes and walked onto a man’s lawn. Mr. Chaine Cousins then got into a profane altercation with a property owner who tried to kick him off the lawn (the lawn is not included in the new horizontal public access zone). The video Cousins shot went viral on his TikTok.
The body camera footage captured even more angles than the TikTok video.
“Unfortunately, until people have a better understanding of the new law, there will be problems with it,” the officer told the owner in body camera footage.
Cousins was charged with trespassing. Cousins said he was simply confused about where the beach access was, but he could have handled the situation better, he said. The incident brought renewed attention to why the actual public road adjacent to the site was blocked.
In addition to the trespass lawsuit against Cousins, disputes over beach access will also be litigated in civil court as private property owners are suing to block access to the beach. A hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, shore access proponents plan to repost the plane banners to make their case as part of a round-trip aerial campaign with private property owners who got their own banners. standing. The latest banner will read “RI Shore Is Still Not Private.”
One place you might see this plane is Bates’ home, Equilibrium, in East Matunak Beach.
The house’s name may celebrate balance, but even Bates and Santerre (also a former economics professor) don’t quite agree on the new shore access law. “Property is theft,” Bates said in an interview, saying the beach is a public good. In a separate interview, Santer said he did not believe it was right to take private property without compensation.
These married economics professors agree on other practical matters. Neither of them care if people gather on the beach in front of their house. And they agree that the beach chair fence next door has no place in JEM.
“Why can’t we all enjoy the beach on a sunny day?” Bates said.
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com.keep up with him @bamaral44.