Westerly should take lighthouse by eminent domain

Shame on Rhode Island’s congressional delegation for allowing the uber-rich neighbors of the Watch Hill Lighthouse to take ownership of the surplus property, despite a plea from Westerly that the spectacular peninsula of land be given to the town and remain in public control.

U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Seth Magaziner all sat on their hands while the federal government this week deeded the lighthouse property over to a nonprofit made up of many of the wealthy Watch Hill summer residents who live near it.

It’s the latest win for the rich in the exclusive enclaves of Weekapaug and Watch Hill in their battle to keep the public away from the shoreline, as they continue to wage separate lawsuits against the town to restrict access to beaches.

Most alarming about transfer of the lighthouse property is that there are no guarantees for continued public access to the 4-acre peninsula, access which Reed had promised would be required in any transfer of the surplus federal property.

No wonder the senator’s spokesman didn’t return my calls asking for comment on the giveaway and shunning of the public. Other Rhode Island media also reported no comment from the senator.

Really, what positive thing can you say about such a horrible act and how you misled the public as it unfolded.

I would urge the Westerly Town Council, having been spurned by Rhode Island’s Washington delegation in its attempt to keep the lighthouse property publicly owned and available for public use and recreation, to take matters into its own hands.

Creating a public park is a perfectly legitimate use of eminent domain, and the Westerly Town Council certainly has the legal authority to begin that taking, to guarantee the public access to the waterfront property that it has enjoyed for decades.

I know there is always some anxiety about the taking of property by eminent domain — you don’t’ have to live or work in New London, home of the battle of the Pink House, to know that — but in this case, the town would be taking property that was developed by the public and used publicly for generations.

It would be hard to make an argument against the town moving to guarantee the fishing and public recreation that has long existed there. The people of Westerly deserve and are entitled to the use of that property, and the Westerly council has the means and a responsibility to make it happen.

The federal government rushed its decision to transfer the property without guaranteed public access

and would not wait to hear the results of a town legal review about whether the road leading to the lighthouse property is public.

It almost certainly is, because of the decades of public use, but even if a title search would show it’s not, eminent domain could resolve that, too.

It’s hard to image how the gazillionaires who live on it could claim it’s not a public road, since they’ve continued to improve their properties over the years because they can pull building permits as residents of a municipal street.

The town, in asking the federal government for the property, said it would not try to run the lighthouse itself, and could lease it to the nonprofit which says it wants to preserve the building.

Or the town could now take the land, the parking lot and lawns, by eminent domain and let the nonprofit keep the lighthouse building.

It is unconscionable that Rhode Island’s politicians in Washington let the public lose access to this magnificent site developed with tax dollars. It sure looks like they meant to cater to people like the owner of a mansion adjacent to the lighthouse, who is a significant donor to the Democratic Party.

I hope they pay a political price for their pandering to the rich stakeholders trying to keep the public from the shoreline.

For the Westerly Town Council it seems like there could be nothing but a political upside for taking back a magnificent waterfront property that has been stolen from the public.