(water rambling) - [Isabella] The Quonochotaug Barrier Beach.

It's a beautiful 1.7 miles of sand, but it's also the site of an ugly dispute consuming the town of Westerly.

- Nine months a year, we welcome anybody to walk across our private property to get to the beach.

- [Isabella] Bob McCann is the moderator of the Weekapaug Fire District.

It's a position akin to mayor.

Weekapaug owns the trail that leads to this beach.

- During the summer, they can access the sand up to nine o'clock in the morning and after six o'clock at night.

During the summer, we exercise our right to private property rights.

- I truly believe everyone should have access to the beach.

This is really an issue of, you know, sort of the haves and the have nots.

(footsteps thudding) - [Isabella] Ellen Kane, a Westerly resident, says Weekapaug has unfairly monopolized this stretch of sand.

She says a public path used to exist next to the private trail on land called the Spring Avenue Extension.

- And then eventually, there was a fence that was put up and then vegetation was planted to block the public from using the space that they had used for a long time.

And they still wanna have the use of that beach be too limited in my opinion.

- [Isabella] Alex Nunes has been covering the dispute for The Public's Radio.

- The debate with Spring Avenue is really about, is this specific stretch of land a public right of way or is it private property where public access can be restricted?

- [Isabella] In recent years, he has seen debates like these escalate in towns along Rhode Island's shores.

There have been arguments.

- [Speaker] But this is a public right of way.

- Not from this point on.

- [Isabella] Altercations.

- I'm gonna have to ask you to leave.

- [Speaker] No, you don't actually.

- [Speaker] Where's the public access?

- Take it up with the town.

You're a real piece of work.

- [Isabella] And calls to the police.

- You're under arrest.

You are under arrest.

- The big debate and the disputes that we've seen in recent years are over specific rights of way to the beach.

- [Isabella] And these fights are costly for property owners and towns alike.

- I have submitted various public records requests over the years, and based on what Weekapaug has provided, they've spent in excess of $600,000 on legal expenses related to shoreline access cases.

And then from the town side, two Westerly town counselors have said that the town is spending roughly $20,000 each month on shoreline access cases.

- And right over here, this is another beach that is part of Weekapaug.

- [Isabella] Bob McCann gave me a tour of the disputed area.

- Weekapaug property, Weekapaug property, and that's the path that people use to access the beach nine months a year.

- [Isabella] On town maps, the Spring Avenue Extension is a 50-foot wide path located between a private home and Weekapaug Fire District land.

In front, there's public parking, and to its side, the Weekapaug footpath and private parking.

- The issue is property and private property rights.

- [Isabella] McCann points to documents like 64 private easements on the land that he says show they own and control the parcel.

He also says the matter has already been settled twice.

- In 2008, the then Town Council of Westerly hired an outside attorney.

He looked into the issue, studied the maps and the plots, and he determined that it's still a private piece of property.

In 2020, the Town Council, the then council of Westerly tried to determine whether or not it was public or private again.

This time they reaffirmed it.

- [Isabella] Ellen Kane says there's more to that story.

- The title attorney did his work and made a presentation saying, "I can't find absolutely in the land records anything that says that this is absolutely a public right of way."

But then he said, "But there's a lot of other evidence that is used ordinarily to declare a right of way that's outside of what the town hired me to do."

It's kind of like, you know, saying the X-ray didn't show anything and leaving out the part that says, but if you have an MRI or a CT scan, you know, that's likely to show the problem.

(water rambling) - [Isabella] The part they are leaving out Kane says, is that a public right of way can exist on private land.

It functions similarly to an easement.

And Kane says to figure out if there's a right of way, you have to look at the history of how the land was planned and used.

- There's very clear body of evidence saying that it is a public right of way.

- [Isabella] Activists point to this 1948 map, which labels a different street private, but the Spring Avenue extension a right of way.

- The aerial photos I find incredibly interesting.

- [Isabella] Kane says, you can see a path in photos estimated to be from the 1920s, thirties, and fifties.

- [Kane] You can see the two distinct paths.

- [Isabella] She also says, photos show the general public accessing the beach.

- And also there are some people who do remember, you know, using it.

When this comes to a hearing, they will be attesting to the fact that, you know, they know it was open and they used it.

- [Isabella] And today, Kane points to the row of public parking spaces that have existed for decades.

- The Fire District cannot, you know, logically, sensibly say that there are public parking spaces there that are filled only for people to listen to the sound of the waves.

And the fence is immediately in front of those parking spaces.

It says to me that there was access.

- Why would there be public parking in front of land that's not a public access point?

- Well, this is a public road, so I'm sure it's just an extension of the public road.

I don't know.

- [Isabella] Bob McCann has his doubts about the advocate's evidence.

- I've seen all the aerial photographs that they're all, you know, they're out there.

I will state that I have not seen a delineated trail.

I don't know anyone that can actually point out and say this was the path that was used.

- [Isabella] And in response to this 1920s photo.

- [Bob] I say that that's the current boardwalk path that exists today.

- [Isabella] And with regards to the maps, such as this one from 1948.

- Why would right of way be written on part of the map and private being written on other parts of the map?

- I gotta ask you to speak to my lawyer.

Speak to our legal team please.

- [Isabella] The Fire District's attorney was not available for an interview, but in response to our questions, he sent a statement writing in part, "There is no public right of way.

The parcel was never marked, cleared, graded, maintained, or used by the town or public.

The maps do not establish an intent to dedicate the parcel, and there has been no act of acceptance.

Dozens of witnesses testify that this parcel was never used as a right of way."

Records show that Weekapaug has spent in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

How much are you willing to spend to fight for Spring Avenue?

- There is no reason to think that we're not gonna stop.

We like the facts.

The facts support us.

We are gonna be in this until we prevail.

- More than a million dollars, $2 million?

Is there any limit you think?

- We are going to do what we need to do to protect our private property rights?

(water rambling) - That protection has some, including activists and the Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU crying foul.

The Fire District has been criticized for what some call scare tactics.

For example, sending a notice to people that contributed to a GoFundMe that they could be deposed.

What do you consider them to be?

- I consider that to be our legal team doing everything they can to protect the private property rights of Weekapaug.

The dispute has also attracted the attention of Attorney General Peter Neronha who has joined the shoreline activist side of the case.

- I think the right of access of Rhode Islanders to enjoy our shoreline is something that the founders of Rhode Island took very seriously.

- [Isabella] Ultimately, the question of whether Spring Avenue will open to the public will be decided by hearings and in court.

These fights and a number of others currently being litigated have the power to shape the Rhode Island shore.

- Many of those could be decided in the next year, and it could be the difference between Rhode Island's shoreline is opened up to the public in a major way or is shut off from the public, maybe even more than it is now.