For the last four years, a 500-foot-long section of Newport’s famed Cliff Walk has been closed after it collapsed during a storm.
The city has secured $22 million to repair the major tourism draw, but the project has hit a snag – a dispute between coastal regulators and the owners of a historic mansion that sits on the property where the Cliff Walk collapsed.
As ecoRI’s Rob Smith reported, the fight centers on a riprap – a layer of large stones that protects soil from erosion. Plans created by Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council do not include repairing the riprap. But the private owners of Southside, the Gilded Age mansion that occupies that section of the Cliff Walk, have said they won’t allow contractors on their property to rebuild the landmark unless the riprap for the private outlook is included.
“It’s not a very big section in the grand scheme of the Cliff Walk,” Smith said of the collapsed section on the eastern end of the trail, “but it’s going to cost a lot of money to fix it back to how it was.”
The owners of Southside did not respond to a request for comment from Ocean State Media.
Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with Smith about the dispute and what comes next for Newport’s iconic Cliff Walk.
Interview highlights
Newport has money to fix the section of the Cliff Walk. On why the Coastal Resources Management Council has not yet approved the plan.
Rob Smith: Well, there's a bit of a disagreement between coastal regulators and the city, and the private property owners who literally, quite literally, own a mansion on that block that you're detouring around when you're going on the Cliff Walk.
Part of the project – the Coastal Resources Management Council and their regulations, you need a special exception to their regulations. Part of the Cliff Walk would go against it. It needs a special exception to be voted on by their full council.
But getting a special exception…If you have a compelling public purpose, they'll give it to you. They're happy to give it to you…It gets very technical. The important part is coastal regulators will give it to you if it’s for a public access project.
On why the owners of Southside are holding out
Smith: If any of the listeners remember on this specific part of the Cliff Walk, there's an overlook that you pass under a stone bridge, which is private. It's a five-ton stone bridge. And to repair it to what the owners want of this private property, they wanted it included as part of the special exception, which is where they're getting the snafu with regulators, because this private stone bridge and overlook would be private. It would not be open to the public.
On stumbling blocks for the city of Newport
Smith: (The owners of the mansion) don't have to let the city use their property to fix the Cliff Walk.
And the thing about the Cliff Walk is you sort of need the land. All the plans that have been presented before coastal regulators that the city has come up with through its engineering contractors it's cheaper and easier. And I think common sense would say you would fix it from land, not by sea. I'm not sure they would even have an idea of how to fix the cliffwalk by sea, but you need somewhere to store all the equipment, the materials, the people, porta-potties, anything that goes with a normal construction or landscaping site. And the easiest access is from that piece of private property. So what CRMC said – they tabled it, they didn't say ‘No.’
On if the dispute will resolve in favor of the Southside mansion
Smith: Probably, yes. I mean, it is Rhode Island.
I cannot imagine it would be cost-effective at all to do this by sea, if it's even possible. I don't know if you could fix the Cliff Walk by sea, but I'm far from a coastal engineer who develops these kinds of projects. And if you're the private property owner, you're in a very good place for this because that is the best leverage you're going to get in this kind of situation.
