The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A line in the sand
Debate arises over public beach access
OLD SAYBROOK — It’s a long-standing issue in Connecticut.
Yes, in 1977, Ned Coll and two of his supporters walked the entire Connecticut shoreline, because, as many know, the beach below the mean high tide mark is public.
Fast-forward to 2020 and, bearing signs with slogans such as “stop walking all over my beach rights,” a small group of people headed to the Old Saybrook shoreline Thursday and sat behind a fence they claim infringes upon the public’s coastal access rights.
But in this case, the exact location of the mean high tide line remains unclear.
The fence cordons off a portion of beach behind a
house at 99 Plum Bank Road, and the protesters, part of a newly formed group called Connecticut Coastal Public Access Defense, claim it falls below the mean high tide line and therefore blocks access to public land.
The state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection issued the property owners a letter of noncompliance saying the fence was “potentially water-ward of Mean High Water (MHW) blocking public access to Town Beach” and asking the owners to either remove the fence or submit a site survey showing they were compliant.
The owners of the house, which also abuts a public beach, declined to comment on the matter.
The town has also asked that the fence be relocated, citing zoning laws.
“We’re just here to educate people about their rights and [to] keep the pressure on the state and the town” to enforce public access, said Linda Mahal, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Coastal Public Access Defense.
According to the DEEP, any part of a beach water-ward of the mean high water line is considered public.
“On the ground, the public trust area extends from the water up to a prominent wrack line, debris line, or water mark,” the DEEP’s website says. “In general, if an area is regularly wet by the tides, you are probably safe to assume that it is in the public trust.”
But the agency’s website also gives another definition of how the mean high water mark is determined and it requires an average measure of high tides over time.
“In almost every case, private property ends, and public trust property begins, at the mean high water line (often referred to as ‘high water mark’ in court decisions),” the website says. “Mean high water is the average of high tides over a defined period, and its elevation can be obtained from standard references, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tidal Flood Profile charts.”
There also may have been beach loss at the site, according to DEEP.
The department has regulatory jurisdiction water-ward of a specific elevation known as the Coastal Jurisdiction Line, an estimate of the tide’s highest reach, which differs from the mean high water mark, per the DEEP’s website.
After receiving a complaint about the fence, the DEEP sent an inspector to the site on June 24, department spokesman Will Healey said.
While older maps put the fence landward of the CJL — far enough up the beach to be compliant — the inspector found that the CJL might have changed due to beach loss, noting that part of the fence was submerged in the water, according to Healey.
Further, since the CJL differs from the mean high water line, some land water-ward of the CJL (but landward of the mean high water mark) may be considered private property. But protesters Thursday claimed the fence also cordons off public lands.
Their claims were supported by a police response on July 2, when a resident of the property complained to the Old Saybrook Police Department that beachgoers were sitting behind the fence.
“It was determined that the people on the beach were beyond the high tide line and that they could be there without any problems,” the police report says.
“The Police Department is always going to make sure that the rights of individuals as well as property owners will be upheld,” Chief Michael Spera said when asked about the matter.
When a reporter knocked on the Plum Bank Road property owner’s door Thursday to seek comment, nobody answered.
First Selectman Carl Fortuna Jr. said the town will fight to preserve public access to the beach.
“The town has and will vigorously enforce its boundary lines to preserve public access to the town beach and the beach in general,” he wrote in an email. “Most recently, this has resulted in a letter demanding a neighboring property owner’s fence be relocated.”
The letter asked that the owner of 99 Plum Bank Road move the fence three feet, claiming it was on town property, according to a copy of the correspondence, provided by Fortuna.
“The town has also brought in the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental (DEEP) which will be issuing its own correspondence to the property owner insofar as their activities impact coastal jurisdiction and the public trust,” Fortuna continued in his statement. “Wherever public access is allowed, it will be preserved.”
Despite the apparent support, a group of protesters, many of them Old Saybrook residents, returned Thursday.
The Connecticut Coastal Public Access Defense group formed after individuals who connected over Facebook discovered they had the same interest in protecting the public’s right to the beach, according to Mahal.
The Old Saybrook fence represents the group’s first advocacy project, but its members aim to do more work down the line, Mahal said.
For member Bart Gullong, who hired an attorney to give advice on the matter, the fight is personal.
Gullong grew up in Old Saybrook, he said. He remembered that while swimming up and down the shoreline as a child, property owners occasionally would yell at him — even though Gullong knew he was in a public area.
“It bothered me that people would be so possessive and so territorial,” he said. “When you’re a little kid, it doesn’t feel fair, and actually when you’re an adult it doesn’t feel fair.”
The fence reminds Gullong of that time, he said, adding that he is determined to make sure it comes down.
For Maggie Murray, a longtime Old Saybrook resident, the fence is symbolic of a larger issue.
As Murray sees it, Old Saybrook has a wonderful, longstanding tradition of openness and acceptance, she said.
But now, she worries the town is becoming more exclusive, she said.