Rhode Island beach house owners challenge expansion of public land above ‘seaweed line’

(CN) — Owners of beachfront property in Rhode Island went to court Friday to fight a new state law that moved the border between their private land and the public beach to 10 feet inland from the "seaweed line."

According to the Rhode Island Association of Coastal Taxpayers in a complaint filed in federal court, the recently enacted law, H. 5174, has converted a ribbon of their land that lies between the mean high water line, the traditional boundary between privately owned land and public land, and the “10-foot from the seaweed line” into a public beach area.

Soon after the law went into effect last month, the property owners allege, people have started trespassing on their private property "under color of the state law." But the owners still own title to the land that now has been converted to public beach.

"Therefore, in extending the public beach to 10 feet inland of the seaweed line, and onto private property, the law effectively imposes an easement on private parcels," the property owners said in the suit. "The encumbrance injures RIACT members’ right to exclude non-owners and the privacy, value, use, and marketability of their properties."

Moreover, the plaintiffs said, the seaweed line — the high water line along the beach where seaweed and other debris from the ocean piles up — is not fixed and can move further land inward, thus potentially allowing public access to more and more parts of their private property.

Representatives of the state's attorney general's office, the named defendant in the lawsuit, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.

Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed “An Act Relating to Waters and Navigation—Coastal Resources Management Council” on June 26. According to the text of the statute cited in the complaint, state lawmakers implemented the changes because the mean high water line demarcating the border between the public beach and private land isn't visible to the naked eye, which has caused confusion and disputes.

The upshot for many owners of beach houses is that under the new law, the public can now access and occupy their "backyard," according to the complaint.

In the case of David Welch, the president of Rhode Island Association of Coastal Taxpayers who owns a home next to the Atlantic shore in Charlestown, Rhode Island, the line 10 foot inland from the seaweed is immediately adjacent to, and almost under, portions of his home.

The property owners claim physical taking of private property without just compensation and seek a court ruling that the law is unconstitutional and can't be enforced.

They are represented by J. David Breemer and Jeremy Talcott of the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento and by Daniel Procaccini of Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. in Providence, Rhode Island.

Follow @edpettersson

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit