WESTERLY, R.I. — From top to bottom, Rhode Island’s 48-mile-long stretch contains nearly 400 miles of shoreline .
And for decades, private homeowners and the public have squared off in court — and on the beach — about just who can access it and how. The state’s constitution protects shoreline access, and so does a 2023 law that guarantees public access to 10 feet above the high tide line, known as the “wrack line” — “recognizable by a line of seaweed, scum, and other deposits left where the tide reached its highest point.” But where that line falls in a changing coastline can be tough to pinpoint, and tensions persist between property owners and those who seek the shore.
Appeals to the law continue to muddy the water in court , and a judge is set to rule later this month about its constitutionality. Those who hope to rent or buy along the Rhode Island coast are wading into that debate, and for realtors who facilitate these goals, not everyone agrees on the approach. Advertisement A preliminary ruling by Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter suggests she believes the law — which Governor Dan McKee signed — constitutes a taking of private property.
To shoreline-access advocates, a long walk on the beach should be a right anyone can enjoy. Navigating the ambiguity hasn’t been simple, either: Homeowners have hired security guards and placed homemade signs intended to limit access, while shoreline advocates host public-right-of-way orientation walks. Confusion can begin with realty listings.
A listing for one waterfront Westerly residence , a $4,000,000 property near Misquamicut State Beach , says it offers “ panoramic views. ” But a listing on the same street for a $1,150,000 home advertises “unobstructed views” and “access to the private beach across the street.” So given the recent law’s passage, what exactly does “private” promise? Dan Babich , an agent with HomeSmart Real Estate Associates who has that “unobstructed views” listing, said the law is too ambiguous.
He described feeling annoyed with shoreline-access protesters, and expressed concern about the potential for bad behavior on the beach, especially when public access ways channel visitors to locations far from public restrooms. His listing, for example, is associated with one of Misquamicut’s three fire district beaches and its usage privileges. Advertisement “There’s not a private ocean,” Babich said, “but the sandy, beachy areas and the facilities, the lifeguards, the trash barrels .
.. all the amenities that we pay for as members of a private beach association are not open to the public.
” Westerly Police did not return a request for data related to beach-related incidents. In June, the state Legislature passed a law requiring realtors to provide information about the shoreline access law in their disclosure to buyers. The Rhode Island Association of Realtors , a trade organization, provides guidance to agents around that communication.
“My main advice would be, if someone were advertising [a] private beach, I would definitely put some kind of asterisk or disclaimer explanation,” said Monica Staaf, general counsel for the association. Clear communication and expectation setting is key, said Kara Churas, managing partner with Sunrise Properties in Narragansett, R.I.
“It’s all about transparency and just not representing something as being private or not accessible when it is accessible,” Churas said. When working with rental properties, she said, her team details which beaches are accessible nearby and how to get to them. That could include a parking pass associated with a specific beach, as well as information about which state beaches welcome the public.
Similarly, at Westerly’s Beachcomber Real Estate Agency, a website page clarifies which beaches are accessible to its renters. “I think in many facets of this job, you really have to kind of over-explain and be very clear,” Churas said, adding that anecdotally, the 2023 law provided clarity that seems to have minimized conflict. Advertisement Babich, who also owns a home in the area, said he has no objection to those who want to pass by — near the waterline.
“I’ve never had a conflict with oceanfront property owners saying you can’t walk across my property,” he said. “I do it all the time. It’s a beautiful seven-mile stretch of beach from the Weekapaug Breachway to Taylor Swift’s house .
And you can walk along that unobstructed. ..
. You really can’t just decide to head inland and walk through somebody’s private property.” The nature of privacy is at the heart of the dispute.
For some, that means unobstructed sightlines to the ocean. J.P.
Gencarella, an employee at Stanton Realty , said the agency has received calls from waterfront home renters complaining that people have set up on the beach in front of the houses where they are staying. He said the owners and renters equate adjoining beachfront with private backyards. “Being able to just walk out the back of your house onto the beach is a really big advertising thing for us,” Gencarella said.
“If you are on the beach and you have direct beach access, we’re going to charge a lot more, and then people are going to expect that, because we’re charging a lot more, they have their own private beach.” Gencarella said the agency provides renters with “private property” signs. “We tell them to wake up really early, put them in their yards so that no one sits there, and then they can have the beach for the day,” he said.
Such signs — homemade and manufactured — are common sights along the shore. “No Trespassing: This Beach Is Private Property,” read signs posted along beach houses located at the end of South Kingstown’s East Matunuck State Beach on a recent weekend. In Misquamicut, beach house occupants set up lines of chairs and other semi-permanent encampments.
Along one public-right-of-way path, someone packed seaweed into a de facto guideline leading down to the water. Tiny American flags bordered the boundaries of a few properties. One home put wooden posts in the ground presumably to keep beachgoers away from the house.
Advertisement Members of the nearly 9,000-member “ Saving RI Coastal Access/Rights of Way ” Facebook group often chronicle the signs, along with discussion about advocacy efforts. Conrad Ferla, a group administrator and shoreline-access advocate, has a pile of such signs in his backyard that he plucked from the beaches. He said increased access benefits everyone and the use of the word “private” along the beach adds to the confusion.
“What I tell real estate agents all the time is to tell [clients] they have private access, or private deeded access,” he said. “You have a house on the water that you can access the shore through your property at any given time. .
.. What you don’t have is the right to exclude the entire public from the public shoreline in the state of Rhode Island.
“ Ferla said a home that abuts the shoreline is akin to one that is theoretically adjacent to a public asset such as Central Park or the Grand Canyon. Brian Gendreau, a Westerly resident who was walking along the Misquamicut shore on a recent Sunday, said it has become more difficult for his family to access the beach because of stricter parking regulations and limited drop-off sites, such as nearby in Watch Hill’s Napatree Point . Advertisement “This is like heaven,” said Barbara-Anne Martin, a Westerly resident pursuing her goal of 10,000 steps.
“I agree this should be everybody’s beach.” Peter Kasper, who owns a nearby summer home, walked his dog on the beach. “The shoreline-access law provided clarity that was long overdue, and so it wasn’t open as much to interpretation,” Kasper said.
Prior to the 2023 law, access was granted up to the high water line, but the dynamic nature of the beach meant that was a moving target. “The idea of going back to something that’s more vague ..
. will be detrimental to the majority of the public,” Kasper said. Thomas Dubois, whose family has owned a home for decades at Misquamicut Beach, said he sees people walking by, but he doesn’t see anyone set up to sit.
Dubois said it would be best if the public avoided the dunes close to his family’s home, but he views that as an ecological concern rather than a privacy-based one. “I feel like nobody owns the beach,” he said. “It’s the tide.
” Later this month, a further ruling on the appeals may once again call into question the law’s standing, but at this time, it remains. Donald Masley, a beachfront owner in Westerly, said beachgoers set up in front of his house sometimes, but it doesn’t bother him. And as for who defines the future of the barrier beach, he sees one force more powerful than any.
“The ocean decides,” he said. Lindsay Crudele can be reached at [email protected] .
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