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5/23/2022
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MEDIA ADVISORY: House Judiciary Committee meets on Thursday to vote on amended shoreline access bill
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STATE HOUSE – The House Judiciary Committee will be meeting on Thursday, May 26 at the RISE of the House (approximately 5 p.m.) in the Room 101 of the State House to vote on amended legislation (2022-H 8055A) sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown) which provides a definition of the “recognizable high tide line” for the public's rights and privileges of the shore.
The amended bill is the result of months of meetings held by the Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations on the Issues Relating to Lateral Access Along the Rhode Island Shoreline, which was chaired by Representative Cortvriend. The right of Rhode Islanders to access the shoreline has been inalienable since it was written into the state constitution in 1843. Yet exactly where the public shoreline ends and private property begins has been a simmering issue that has increased with development of the shoreline over the last century.
The amended legislation defines “recognizable high tide line" as a line or mark left upon tide flats, beaches, or along shore objects that indicates the intersection of the land with the water's surface level at the maximum height reached by a rising tide. The line encompasses the water's surface level at spring high tides and other high tides that occur with periodic frequency, but does not include the water's surface level at storm surges.
The amended bill states that the public's rights and privileges of the shore may be exercised, where shore exists, on wet sand or dry sand or rocky beach, up to six feet landward of recognizable high tide line.
The committee will also vote on the following bills:
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2022-H 7402, sponsored by Rep. Edith H. Ajello (D-Dist. 1, Providence), requires returns of a marriage certificate to be filed within two business days after the ceremony, and validates the common practice of filing the return by mail.
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2022-H 7895, sponsored by House Judiciary Chairman Robert E. Craven (D-Dist. 32, North Kingstown), creates a temporary non-liquidating receivership program for businesses with substantial revenue decline after declared emergency/suspended/ceased substantial part of operation resulting by emergency police/regulatory powers.
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2022-H 2105, sponsored by Sen. Alana M. DiMario (D-Dist. Narragansett, North Kingstown), establishes a military family advocacy program to address child abuse and neglect in military families.
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2022-S 2706, sponsored by Sen. Cynthia A. Coye (D-Dist. 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence), adds felony violations of the Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking as a designated offense for an application for an order under the Interception of Wire and Oral Communications statute.
The meeting will be televised live on Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox on Channels 15 and 61, on i3Broadband on Channel 15 and on Channel 34 by Verizon subscribers. The meeting will also be live streamed at http://rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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