If you’ve never heard of Quonochontaug Barrier Beach, you’re forgiven.
This exquisite stretch of sand in Westerly is one of Rhode Island’s best-kept secrets, because wealthy property owners have tried to keep it mostly for themselves.
”We would love nothing more than to be able to use it year-round,” said Joy Cordio, a local activist.
But for years, beachfront homeowners have done their best to block that. At every pedestrian access point, the Weekapaug Fire District has posted signs declaring this is to be a “private beach,” strictly off limits to outsiders from Memorial Day through to Labor Day.
Just in case people don’t get the message, guards stand by all day to remind people.
State officials may be about to change all that.
On Monday at Westerly Town Hall, the Coastal Resources Management Council is set to hold a public meeting over what’s been called the Spring Avenue Extension near the Atlantic Ocean at Quonochontaug Barrier Beach.
The Rhode Island attorney general argues the path is public and wants the CRMC to make it a state-designated public right-of-way to the shore.
The right to enjoy the beach — any beach in Rhode Island — is actually enshrined in the state constitution. Article 1, Section 17, states that “the privileges of the shore” are guaranteed to all of us.
Legislation enacted in 2023, known as the Wrack Line Law, clarified that beachgoers are entitled to occupy 10 feet landward of the seaweed line (a/k/a the wrack line), formed by debris deposited on the shore at high tide.
The problem is getting there.
Multi-million dollar homes create an impenetrable fence around much of Quonochontaug. The narrow zone that activists say was historically the public right-of-way has long since been allowed to overgrow into an impenetrable thicket. It has been fenced off for years.
Monday’s hearing is expected to draw a crowd.
“This fight goes not just for me and the people who have been here, but for the people in the future that want to come out here,” said Andy Rauhauser, a local fisherman who has been coming here since he was a kid.
“What’s at stake is this beach and your right to use it during the summer,” said Cordio.
