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4/29/2025
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House OKs Cortvriend bill to preserve public rights of way
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STATE HOUSE – The House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend to help cities and towns affordably preserve public access paths and trails.
The legislation (2025-H 5960) allows municipalities to abandon roads or paths they no longer wish to maintain for vehicular traffic but preserve a public easement on them that allows the public to access them by foot, bicycle or other means.
“Public access to nature has long been imperiled in Rhode Island by a lack of specific laws protecting it,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown), who championed the 2023 legislation that established a legal definition of the public area of the shoreline in Rhode Island. “Old roads and paths that are enjoyed by the public are often the subject of disputes when property changes hands or the area becomes more developed. This legislation will give cities and towns a means to preserve the public’s use of such places when the town would otherwise abandon them. Instead of having two choices — abandonment or being responsible for maintaining the road — it will give them a third choice of abandoning it as a highway but preserving the public’s right to keep using it for recreation. That designation will legally establish public access and head off any future disputes about it.”
The bill establishes an option called “qualified abandonment” that would give municipalities a new middle option between responsibility for maintaining the road at the level necessary for vehicles and fully abandoning it.
While the bill would provide this option throughout the state, its sponsor envisions it as particularly useful for the purposes of maintaining public access to the shore as climate change and flooding make it more challenging for cities and towns to maintain some coastal roads.
In addition to allowing the public to traverse the path, the town could also choose to allow parking there, if appropriate. That option, said Representative Cortvriend, would be especially helpful in many coastal neighborhoods where parking is scarce.
Qualified abandonment could potentially save the public money, particularly in coastal areas where increased flooding is causing damage to a road. Instead of having to choose between the expense of continuing to maintain a road that is continually damaged by flooding, or fully abandoning it, which would allow it to become part of abutters’ properties and thereby imperil public access to it, qualified abandonment preserves the public’s access without the road maintenance costs.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Victoria Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown) is sponsoring companion legislation (2025-S 0039).
“This bill is a great step forward,” said Michael Rubin, retired Rhode Island assistant attorney general and longtime coastal advocate. “It embodies the concept of doing no harm. Too often when towns abandon roads it harms the public by reducing access. This bill will allow those roads to continue to serve recreation and access to our natural resources.”
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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