Our efforts with the Town of Wells
In the spring of 2024, the Wells Select Board held three meetings with Moody Beach rights on the agenda: on May 21, June 5, and June 18.
On May 21, the Board announced it would file an amicus brief in support of the statewide Masucci case, which is on its way to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. It then allowed for public comment.
On June 5, a Special Seletman’s meeting was held specifically on Moody Beach issues, which continued public comment. At the end of this meeting, the Board announced it would seek to establish a committee of all stakeholders regarding public access on Moody Beach and seek to broker a viable agreement.
On June 18, the Town discussed briefly how it would determine the make-up of such a committee and announced they’d consider engaging a professional mediator or facilitator.
The Town also announced it had purchased land rights belonging to Eleanor Wright, a descendant of Charles Tibbetts, original developer of Moody Beach. The details and scope of that purchase are not yet known.
Links to the meetings to follow.
In 34 years, the Town of Wells has done nothing to help alleviate the increasingly hostile environment at Moody Beach. Many of us have approached members of the Select Board and the Town Manager repeatedly. At best, we are politely listened to and then ignored or provided with excuses for their inaction. At worst, we are completely ignored from the start, with our phone calls and emails going unanswered. Free Moody Beach sent an Open Letter to the Town of Wells on September 5, 2023 outlining several actions Wells could take today to help the situation, which are all within the current law and asking Wells to answer some questions.
On October 13, Wells responded to the Open Letter refusing to act based on the fact that there is pending litigation regarding Maine beaches.
On October 17, Free Moody Beach read a statement at the Select Board meeting declaring we will approach these issues on an individual basis and work within town guidelines, as needed.
Please see copies of each document below, and a press release regarding the Wells reply.
Free Moody Beach sent an email to Wells in December 2023 requesting they add the words “Lawful on Entire Beach: Fishing fowling navigation” to the signs in the public rights-of-way. As of January 2024, we have not heard back from them. Please see the article below published in The Portsmouth Herald and Seacoast Online on January 5, 2024.
Wells has held closed-door executive sessions with their lawyer since December to discuss beach rights, although as of today, April 8, we have not received a response to our request from 4 months ago. They would have known in the initial meeting that their signs mislead the public and favor upland owners. Additionally, we have asked to engage in a dialogue, without any response by the Board. We contend we are being prevented from engaging in the democratic process.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2024/01/05/wells-maine-free-moody-beach-lawsuit-private-public-access-case/72099070007/
Free Moody Beach: Group wants signs to let beachgoers know they can go on private beach
Shawn P. Sullivan
Portsmouth Herald
January 5, 2024
WELLS, Maine — A local group’s fight for fuller public access to the intertidal zones of Maine’s beaches is continuing into the new year, with an effort to change town signs to reflect what is allowed on privately owned properties at Moody Beach.
The group, Free Moody Beach, is claiming that town-erected signs at three rights-of-way at Moody Beach are misleading in their wording because they do not state Maine law accurately, according to spokesperson Jeannie Connerny.
The group claims that the signs, as written, “serve to encourage beachfront homeowners who engage in aggressive tactics to intimidate beachgoers,” according to its recent press release. The group added that it wants the signs to be “accurate and balanced.”
Currently, the signs read, “Public Right of Way to Water,” “Private Beach on Either Side of the Public Way,” and “No Town Beach Services Available.”
Free Moody Beaches is proposing the signs also have the language, “Lawful on Entire Beach: Fishing Fowling Navigation,” so that beachgoers can know what they are allowed to do in the intertidal zones.
“We want Wells to state the total law,” Connerny said.
The group has sent an email about its concerns about the signs to Wells Public Works Director Carol Murray but has not received a response, according to Connerny.
Murray confirmed this week that she had received the email. She said that given that her expertise is engineering and not the law, she forwarded the group’s request to Town Manager Michael Pardue for legal review by the town’s attorney.
The group said it would “work within whatever policy review process the town has” for changing local signs.
Wells declined to join Free Moody Beach effort
The request comes three months after the town of Wells declined to join public-use advocates in their fight to gain more access to local intertidal lands that are privately owned.
Specifically, the group wanted the town to support Our Maine Beaches in its lawsuit against three Moody Beach property owners.
Our Maine Beaches filed suit in 2021 to return private beaches along the Maine coast to the public. While a judge ruled that the property owners owned the intertidal land, it did not address what constitutes acceptable public use.
In May, Our Maine Beaches, represented by attorney Benjamin Ford, filed a motion seeking a summary judgment declaring that 36 activities, from scientific research to birdwatching to building sandcastles, are legal and allowed on the state's beaches and intertidal lands under current law.
The judge has not yet ruled on the issue, Ford said.
Free Moody Beach urged Wells in a letter this fall to follow the same approach as Kennebunkport when it successfully argued, in a case decided in Maine Superior Court in 2019, that the town owned Goose Rocks Beach. In the letter, the group argued that the Kennebunkport case showed that legal pathways exist for Wells, despite a 1989 court ruling – in the case of Bell v. Town of Wells – that said certain intertidal zones on Moody Beach were privately owned.
The motion pursued by Our Maine Beaches has roots in that case settled more than 30 years ago.
In Bell v. Town of Wells, also known as the Moody Beach case, the state's top court ruled that the only public rights recognized in privately owned intertidal areas are those outlined in a colonial ordinance from the 1600s: fishing, fowling and navigating.
That means beachfront property owners along Maine's coasts have property rights down to the low-tide area, except for an easement to allow the public to engage in those three permitted activities.
Pardue responded to Free Moody Beach’s letter in October. He told the group that Wells was not prepared to join its efforts or those of other advocates due to the pending legal matters in court.
Free Moody Beach vows to step up public access campaign
Pardue’s response in October prompted Free Moody Beach to declare that it would no longer make “arm’s-length appeals” to the town and instead would “roll up our sleeves and do the work ourselves.”
The group vowed to increase its civic activism in 2024 to push for the right of residents to freely use beaches and intertidal lands in Maine. Changing the wording on the right-of-way signs is the group’s first task in that effort, the group said in a press release.
“If direct participation in town government processes is required to effect change, then that’s what we’ll do,” Connerney said.
Free Moody Beach cited a poll, conducted by Digital Research, Inc. and reported in the Maine Morning Star in October, that more than 70% of participants support measures to “expand public access” to Maine beaches and intertidal lands.
“The machinery at town hall must begin working for the town's residents, the majority of whom want beach rights restored,” Connerney said. “Wells is supposed to be a democracy. We want it to act like one.”
Murray said the request to change the signage is with the town manager. However, she suggested the sign proposed by Free Moody Beaches is too wordy and, therefore, likely would not be read in full by people if posted.
“That’s a lot of words on a small sign,” she said. “With signs, we try to keep things as succinct as possible.”