Beaches Update May 2024
Maine beach controversies heat up as summer approaches
(Portland, Maine) Several situations concerning Maine beaches and intertidal lands are likely to see significant developments in the coming weeks and months. Updates:
Please support our mission to decriminalize having fun on Maine’s beaches
The Wells Select Board is holding a meeting next week, 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 21, at York County Community College in Wells, to discuss all beach access issues and accept public comment. The meeting is a significant victory for residents who for many months have been pressing town leaders to make public their support for beach access initiatives.
In Maine Superior Court, Richard Tappen’s contention that he bought a section of Popham Beach for $15,000 faces a difficult judicial test when a lawsuit between him and his neighbors goes to trial. Tappen is a New Jersey resident who seeks to bar his neighbors from using the beach, claiming he now owns the sand in front of his neighbors’ beachfront homes. The case is expected to go to trial in late June or early July.
Maine Rep. Allison Hepler, Co-Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources, and committee member Rep. Tiffany Strout, plan a series of meetings over the summer with various stakeholders. The meetings will include many small Maine businesses that depend on the state’s intertidal lands to make a living, nonprofit organizations, and coastal property owners. A bill to decriminalize uses of beaches and intertidal lands did not make it out of committee in the last legislative session, but during the session Hepler wrote, “there are several of us who recognize the need to make a living on the water.” She also promised to keep a close eye on all court cases.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has released its schedule for a historic case now in front of it, Masucci et al. v. Judy’s Moody et al. (“The People’s Lawsuit”), in which Plaintiffs are expected to argue that the arcane historic phrase “fishing, fowling and navigation” needs to be modernized in order to preserve the original intent of legislators who wrote the phrase in the 1600s. The old language was meant to protect all uses of the intertidal zone for the public, and specifically named the three public uses of the intertidal zone common at the time. Attorneys in the case are required to start furnishing various documents to the justices in June and finish that process by the end of August. A trial could begin sometime in the Fall. Actions by the Town of Wells next week or a legal outcome in the Popham Beach case could influence attorney arguments in the SJC case, as they write and submit briefs to the Court over the summer.
Surfrider.org announced last week that it will file an amicus curiae brief in the SJC case, in support of expanded beach access. They wrote, “This is an important case for all Mainers and Surfrider members who enjoy Maine beaches and deserve to exercise their recreational rights along the shore.”
News came last summer that, as proven by municipal tax data, property owners in Wells who claim to own Moody Beach to the low water mark only pay taxes on the upland portion of their property. It’s almost certain that the same is true along the entire coast of Maine: no beachfront owner pays property tax on wet sand down to the low water mark.
Polling conducted last year by Digital Research, Inc. of Portland (DRI) revealed strong support among Maine residents for legislative action to protect public use of the state’s beaches and intertidal lands. Asked about new laws “that expand the public’s access to Maine’s ocean beaches,” 71% expressed clear support.
For those interested in boning up on the legal arguments that will soon be made in front of the SJC, read the history and legal analysis of Orlando Delogu. He serves as an emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law, and spent 35 years researching, teaching and arguing the law at the root of this issue. Here’s the link to his book, “Maine Beaches Are Public Property.”
About Our Maine Beaches
Our Maine Beaches (www.OurBeaches.me) is an informal collaboration of residents throughout the state that supports any and all efforts to restore reasonable uses of coastal beaches and intertidal lands to the people of Maine. The organization and its website exist solely on the strength of voluntary contributions from professional vendors and citizen content providers.