RI shoreline public access bill introduced, beach rights battle ahead

RI shoreline public access bill introduced, beach rights battle ahead

Very long-awaited legislation aimed at clarifying the public’s proper to use the shoreline is in this article.

House Bill 8055 would establish that the general public has the correct to be 10 feet above the “recognizable large tide line” on any sandy or rocky shorelineIt was introduced by Rep. Terri Cortvriend, D-Middletown, and Property Minority Leader Blake Filippi, R-Block Island, on Friday.

“This is not an expansion of shoreline access, but relatively a restoration or preservation of constitutional shoreline entry legal rights,” explained activist and surfer Conrad Ferla.

A secretive group regarded as Shoreline Taxpayers for Respectful Traverse, Environmental Obligation and Protection, Inc., is prepared to argue the opposite, and warning of lawsuits if the invoice is handed. 

RI shoreline public access bill introduced, beach rights battle ahead

“I can say with some self confidence that there are countrywide groups that are seeing this monthly bill pretty carefully,” lobbyist Christopher Boyle informed The Providence Journal“We consider that if it was to be enacted, there’d be national involvement in litigation.”

The monthly bill is the product of a study commission chaired by Cortvriend and Filippi. More than the training course of six months, commission members heard testimony from legal professionals, scientists and the common general public, and came to near-unanimous consensus on a route ahead.