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Bob horton: greenwich's latest war on the waterfront by efwegbe erergeer
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Bob horton: greenwich's latest war on the waterfront |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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Could Greenwich be heading for another lawsuit over public accessto Long Island Sound? If you lived in town in the mid- to late '90s, you are probablyfamiliar with the lawsuit filed by a Stamford attorney thatresulted in opening all Greenwich beaches and parks to, gasp,nonresidents. Greenwich spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars defending itsresidents-only policy, only to be told by the state Appellate andSupreme courts that it was illegal. The town waited anxiously forhordes of outsiders to invade town shores, but the expectedonslaught never materialized. There have been occasional grumblingsfrom some of the local population about changes to town facilitieswrought by these strangers to Greenwich, but by and large, expandedbeach access has done little to disrupt summer habits in town.
However, what became known around town as "the beach lawsuit"dominated conversations from cocktail party chatter to letters tothe editor. It even upended town politics, leading to one of therare times that Greenwich elected a Democrat as first selectman. Soit might be reasonable to assume that town officials do not want tolive through that nightmare again, especially Republicans. But the Board of Selectmen is dancing around the edges of this controversy again by failingto create a Harbor Management Plan that would govern the sevenharbors in Long Island Sound that create the greater GreenwichHarbor. Such a plan would have to be approved by the state, whichis what worries our elected officials who think the state wouldforce broader public access to Greenwich waterfront.
They refer toit as "losing local control," but make no mistake, it is all aboutkeeping mooring and other waterfront rights for town residentsonly. The similarities between the beach access and harbor managementissues are striking. In the beach access suit, the town argued that it was given specialpowers by the Connecticut State Legislature in 1919 that allowed itto keep "public parks and bathing beaches" for the "use of theinhabitants of the town." In deciding against the town's position, the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled that the 1919 legislative act violated the Public Trust Doctrine , under which the state holds "lands under tidal and navigablewaterways in trust for the use by all state citizens." Now the Board of Selectmen is relying on special legislative actsto claim Greenwich can manage its waterfront without regard forstate or federal regulations. Speaking at the April 19 Board of Selectmen's meeting, First Selectman Peter Tesei reportedly said, "Let's be clear that these are state legislativeacts specific to the town of Greenwich which we are interpreting assaying we can set regulations and set fees and so forth ..
." At specific issue is the town's desire to continue charging $100for an annual mooring permit, a practice first started severalyears ago. The new state harbor master for Greenwich has refused tocollect the fee in the absence of a harbor management plan thatwould, in part, detail how the money would be spent. The harbor master, Ian MacMillan , asked the state attorney general to help sort out this conflict,and Thursday the AG's office told MacMillan that it was not goingto disrupt how the town was managing mooring fees. But still unresolved is whether the specific powers given the townby the special legislative acts take supremacy over state andfederal laws and the Public Trust Doctrine.
That may requireanother lawsuit to resolve, but given the precedent set by theruling in the beach access suit, it seems highly unlikely that thetown would prevail. Several years ago the town's own lawyers told it as much. Then- Greenwich Harbor Master Jonathan Asch clashed with the town over who had the authority to permit mooringfields. Lawyers hired by the town, who were paid almost $30,000raised by mooring fees, agreed with the town that the special actswere still in effect.
But, in concluding a letter dated Aug. 30,2010, to Selectman David Theis , the lawyers wrote, "We also must note that this opinion does notsuggest that the Special Acts supersede any federal or state law orthat they relieve any person from obtaining any additional approvalof permit for any mooring in Greenwich coastal waters ... ." And even as far back as 1984, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrote in a public notice about dredging of the channel in Cos CobHarbor that "we became aware of language in the town (of Greenwich)by-laws which apparently limits access to Greenwich waterways totown residents...as a condition of (this) federal permit ..
thetown obligated itself to maintain access to these facilities onequal terms to all." Let's hope that Brenden Leyden , the Stamford attorney who filed the beach access suit after beingdenied access to jog there, has not decided to take up sailing. Bob Horton can be reached at bobhorton@yahoo.com. I am Air-conditioner writer, reports some information about sofa le corbusier , inflatable air blown.
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