Before the Ocean State’s Constitution gets around to mentioning freedom of the press, freedom of speech or the right to bear arms, it enshrines the concept of “shore privileges.”
“The people shall continue to enjoy and freely exercise all the rights of fishery and the privileges of the shore,” reads Article 1, Section 17, “including but not limited to fishing from the shore, the gathering of seaweed, leaving the shore to swim in the sea and passage along the shore.”
“The constitution doesn’t say we can access the shore when it’s good for the Weekapaug Fire District,” Westerly resident Mike Lombardi told members of the Coastal Resources Management Council Monday evening.
Lombardi was part of a standing-room crowd packed into Westerly Town Hall to offer public comments, pro and con, on whether the state should restore a contested public right of way to a 1.7-mile pristine stretch of coastline near the Weekapaug Inn.
Quanachontaug Barrier Beach is one of Rhode Island’s best-kept secrets because wealthy beachfront property owners have managed to keep it mostly for themselves.
For years, the Weekapaug Fire District has posted signs and guards declaring Quanachontaug to be a “private beach.” During the summer months, outsiders can only access the beach during off-hours, before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m.
“I have been asked to leave and I have been denied access — both are wrong,” said Steve Banahan, who lives about a mile away.
The owners of multimillion-dollar homes nearest the beach claim they are under no obligation to share it.
“Rights-of-way can be extinguished unless they are recorded in property deeds,” homeowner Anne Thomas told the CRMC. She said her family has owned property near the beach since 1915.
A contested right-of-way known as the Spring Avenue Extension does appear on a 1939 map of the shoreline, but subsequent town maps do not include it.
“The property in question has never been used as a path to the beach,” said homeowner Fred Kroll, who has lived there for 71 years.
“That whole area is overgrown with shrubs and lots of poison ivy,” homeowner Emily Mugge said.
“I have never once seen anybody using the Spring Avenue Extension,” said Mary McCormack, who said she has owned a home nearby for 57 years.
“It has always been overgrown, except after hurricanes,” she said.
“The town has never touched the property because it doesn’t belong to the town,” said homeowner Bob McCann. “The Weekapaug Fire District owns it.”
Westerly residents who live farther from the beach were quick to push back.
“It was open in the 1970s,” said Dr. John McLean. “As kids, we went down there on a regular basis.”
“The reason these people have never witnessed anyone walking through is because it’s been blocked off,” said Westerly resident Juan DeCicco.
Some homeowners argued there’s an environmental imperative to limit access.
“This is a sensitive barrier beach,” noted Richard Sherman, who owns a home not far from the contested right of way. “Should unrestricted and uncontrolled access to the Spring Avenue Extension be allowed, it would create a level of human traffic that will have a materially adverse effect on this very fragile barrier beach.”
Jed Thorp, chief of advocacy for the environmental group Save the Bay, called that claim “ludicrous.”
“The environmental concerns simply don’t add up,” he said.
“Just because a property owner has been successful in blocking access for 10 years or more doesn’t mean it should remain that way,” Thorp told the board.
“I don’t think anyone wants to despoil this beach,” Westerly resident Brian Nelson said. “We just don’t want the Fire District to control it.”
The Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is a state agency created in 1971, responsible for managing, planning and regulating activities along Rhode Island’s coastal zone. The CRMC’s 10 members are appointed by Rhode Island’s governor.
Its authority supersedes that of the Weekapaug Fire District, a quasi-municipal agency funded by local property taxes. Its original purpose was to provide fire protection, but decades ago, it evolved to act more like a private homeowner’s association.
In 2023, after state lawmakers enacted a new law clarifying Rhode Islanders’ rights to shoreline access, state Attorney General Peter Neronha encouraged the CRMC to remedy what he called “an amateurish, inconsistent approach to protecting one of our state’s most valuable resources.”
The fight over access to Quanachontaug Barrier Beach, which the CRMC is now considering, is one of multiple disputes playing out along the Ocean State’s coastline.
“This is going to keep coming back to you, and coming back, and coming back, because we’re not going to stop,” said Westerly resident Dan Davidson.
“The problem is really the gentrification of the shoreline in Rhode Island,” he said. “We have to stand up and explain to people who buy property that there is no such thing as a private beach in Rhode Island.”
