Letter: Town officials, editorial unfair to East Beach lot owners

Posted 2/24/21

To the editor:

As members of the Board of Directors of the East Beach Improvement Association, and lot owners on East Beach Road, we write to respond to this paper’s editorial dated February …

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Letter: Town officials, editorial unfair to East Beach lot owners

Posted

To the editor:

As members of the Board of Directors of the East Beach Improvement Association, and lot owners on East Beach Road, we write to respond to this paper’s editorial dated February 4.  The editorial unfairly and inaccurately describes our responsible stewardship of East Beach and the Town of Westport’s discriminatory regulation of our properties.

East Beach Road is one area, among others, that Mass DEP has identified as a barrier beach. After previous hurricanes devastated the neighborhood on East Beach Road the Town decided to require East Beach lot owners to apply for permits to park seasonal trailers on our properties during the summer months.  Even though we have purchased our East Beach lots and pay property taxes year round, the Town’s permitting process only allows us to use our property from May to November.  At the end of the season, we remove our trailers and other non-permanent property from the lots.  And whenever there is a hurricane warning, we are ready to remove all of our property despite it being costly and time-consuming.  We understand the importance of protection and preservation.

As has happened before, the Town overreached again this Fall when it sent a threatening letter stating that either we had to remove everything from our East Beach properties or risk being denied a permit for next season.  Can you imagine the Town telling you not to use your property at all if you didn’t agree to an arbitrary and unnecessary Town edict?  

The Town has no reason to think that items that have been permanent features of our properties for years or decades — things like sturdily built fences and sheds — are at any  risk of washing into the Let or the ocean during the winter wash-over storms that sometimes occur.  Of course, we would remove property in the event of a major hurricane warning — we have no desire to lose our own property after all — but making us move permanent things like fences and decks that are at no risk of being washed away just defies common sense.  Other barrier beach property owners, aside from East Beach Road lot owners, are not directed to do the same.

Some of us were members of the EBIA the last time the Town tried to make East Beach lot owners comply with unfair, unworkable requirements. The EBIA had no choice but to sue the Town in Superior Court.  We won, and the Town backed off, at least for a while. We do not want to take the Town back to court, but the Town may leave us no choice. Instead, we have asked that Town leadership sit down with us if they want to change the permitting process that has worked well enough for several decades.

Over these many years, the EBIA has been engaged in proactive practices to preserve the integrity of the Beach and we repeatedly communicate with Town officials to work collaboratively to preserve East Beach.  We are ready to continue with this cooperative approach, if only the Town lets us.

Board of Directors, East Beach Improvement Association

Westport

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.