The quandary about Beach Avenue arose during Town Administrator Michael Coughlin's Informational Report to the Board of Selectmen Monday night.
Mr. Coughlin recommended closing Beach Avenue temporarily for public safety reasons. Sergeant Majewski recommended placing a barrier 20 feet down Beach Avenue. The 20-foot stretch would provide sufficient turn around space for vehicles that attempted to enter it.
Several land owners who live near Beach Avenue were present and complained about the issues that have plagued them increasingly in past years: trespassers and party people who leave trash, trudge over fragile dunes, and get their cars stuck in the sand as they attempt to drive ever closer to the beaches.
Photo courtesy of Shorelines
Board member Duncan Albert noted that the public should be advised that these are not town beaches or public beaches but private property.
"People think because it is a town street it must be a town beach; it is not," Mr. Albert said.
He encouraged people who live in that area to form an association to petition the town for the removal of Beach Avenue as a public street and make it a private street. The road could then become gated as long as keys are provided to public safety personnel. He also said there are environmental issues that arise when moving all the sand to clear that road.
Mr. Mauk moved to follow Mr. Coughlin's recommendation provided that a key be given to Mr. Morad, who was in favor ot the motion and has land on Beach Avenue, so that he could have access to his property and it wouldn't be viewed as a land taking.
Mr. Coughlin was not in favor of distributing keys to public personnel and to private landowners and reiterated his recommendation to temporarily close the road. He reported that the Westport Land Conservation Trust, which owns seven lots abutting the road, had written a letter to his office in favor of abandonment of Beach Avenue and closing it permanently.
"It's not a taking of land because it's a temporary measure for public safety reasons," Mr Coughlin said. "Permanent solutions could be abandonment of the road as the WLCT suggested or formation of neighborhood association to hammer out property rights to the roadway." Presumably, that process would involve determining if there are town landings anywhere along Beach Avenue and what to do about one piece of town owned land on Beach Avenue.
"I'm not trying to give you a hard time, I'm trying to bring this to a successful conclusion," Mr. Mauk said, "If I move to exactly what you want to do, could you put a time to come back to come back and report your follow up recommendations."
Mr. Coughlin agreed. A motion was unanimously passed to temporarily close for a three month period after which Mr. Coughlin would appear before the Board to offer his follow up recommendations about Beach Avenue's future.
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