Hearings will continue to determine if Spring Avenue, a patch of land in the Weekapaug neighborhood of Westerly, is a public right of way to the beach, Rhode Island’s shoreline authority decided on Tuesday.
The Weekapaug Fire District, a government entity that represents the village within Westerly, had petitioned to pause hearings before the Coastal Resources Management Council, a state agency that determines rights of way.
Joe Farside, attorney for the Weekapaug Fire District, argued that since Rhode Island’s Superior Court had taken up the case, the commission should step aside.
“We think there’s a lot of efficiency in limiting this to a single proceeding,” said Farside to the council.
Meanwhile, the town of Westerly, the state of Rhode Island, and a shoreline activist argued that the council was created to hear cases like Spring Avenue and that pausing or discontinuing the proceedings would undermine the jurisdiction of the council.
“One of the council’s primary explicit responsibilities is to designate public right of ways to tidal water,” said William Conley, attorney for the town of Westerly, to the council. “You are being asked today to give it up. If you give it up in this case, you’ll have forfeited it forever.”
The Coastal Resources Management Council’s decision to continue the hearings was a small victory for shoreline activists, in a long and expensive dispute over the plot of land.
At present, the Weekapaug Fire District controls access to Quonochontaug Barrier Beach, a 1.7-mile stretch of sand in Westerly. The fire district allows the public to use their boardwalk to the beach in the off-season but reserves private access for residents from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summertime.
If the land known as Spring Avenue was determined to be a public right of way, then the public would be able to access Quononchontag Barrier Beach year-round.
Shoreline activists have argued that the land is a historic right of way to the shore, while the Weekapaug Fire District says the land is their property and no right of way exists.
To learn more about the dispute, watch our story on Rhode Island PBS Weekly:
