Beachfront owners should chill
Alan Casavant is a former mayor and state representative of Biddeford, which has several sandy beaches along its coast. (Maine Sunday Telegram, March 3, 2024)
Does the notion of a “private” Maine beach annoy you? Here’s something to cheer.
A Superior Court judge recently decided that a lawsuit trying to return the state’s coastal beaches and intertidal lands to the people of Maine, as lawmakers always intended, “is outside the bounds of this court’s jurisdiction.” This properly moves the case to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (SJC).
The SJC is where judges made grave legal errors in 1989 while deciding that beachfront property owners can chase people off intertidal lands. That was a split 4-3 decision, with all four judges in the majority owning property near the shore. A few years later legal scholars, including former SJC Chief Justices Daniel Wathen and Leigh Saufley, argued their court should reconsider the 1989 decisions that incorrectly created brand new law.
Saufley, now Dean of the University of Maine School of Law, wrote that those decisions were “clearly flawed” and “founded upon a faulty legal analysis.” All eyes will be on the SJC as it now gets a chance to correct its historic mistake.
After the recent Superior Court ruling, a lawyer for beachfront owners said there’s no need for a case at all. “This (case) is an attempt to manufacture an issue that just isn’t there,” he told the Press Herald. But that contradicts fact, including unpleasant confrontations on Maine beaches this summer, some caught on video.
The lawyer also has said, “Their whole claim is that the signs create apprehension.” Private beach signs do indeed cause consternation along the coast of Maine, because everyone knows there’s no such thing. Fishing, fowling and navigation on all beaches and intertidal lands are specifically allowed under the law. But if it’s true that signs are a “manufactured” issue, take the signs down.
It's the perfect time for such a magnanimous gesture. Municipal taxpayers all along the coast of Maine funded the work to quickly re-open and repair roads to beaches after the January super-storms. This allowed owners to access their beachfront homes, to leave the ocean for medical appointments and to buy groceries. It also cleared the way for public safety personnel to rescue them, in case of fire or medical emergency.
Maine’s coastal towns did a superb job helping people on the shore. Of course, all taxpayers will now pay again, through state and federal relief programs helping property owners along the coast of Maine.
Ironically, “private” beaches produce no tax revenue. The lawyer for beachfront owners has said the reason nobody pays town property taxes on beaches is that property lines cannot be determined. “You can’t close the line,” he said. “You can’t put pins in a low-water mark.” He’s exactly right. Property lines cannot be drawn on sand or seaweed-covered rocks that get wet; that’s how “private” beach owners escape paying taxes on land they claim to own. The rest of us pay taxes on all land we might be lucky enough to own.
Taxpayers fund the common good, including the rapid professional action town crews took in January to help those living in beachfront properties. That’s why persistent, unnecessary behavior always strikes a raw nerve. Like news this summer of a New Jersey man claiming to own a slice of Popham Beach and trying to bar neighbors from using it. Or the woman in southern Maine demanding cops chase off 7-year old children playing in the sand on “her” beach.
Here’s some advice for them, since more super-storms are coming.
People use beaches for a mere few hours in the summer. Given the taxpayers’ generosity, calmly accept your beach-loving neighbors. They’re paying for beach roads and providing critical services. Take down your “private” signs, and learn to chill. Why not eliminate the need for a court case altogether?
If reason prevailed, basic civility could return to Maine beaches where relaxation, not confrontation, should be the rule of thumb. That would serve the common good.