I’m sorry to see Harwich town meeting decide not to defend traditional public access to Bay View Road beach. It’s hard for a town to go up against the determined wealthy and their lawyers. It would in any case have been a tough fight in the courts.
Owners have sought to restrict public use of the beach in front of their houses to the postage stamp of sand at the end of a six foot right-of-way. According to town counsel the law is on their side. And as one selectman said, “Laws exist, and we have to live with them.”
Yes, laws exist, but tradition and the human logic of the situation also exist. And the ostensible winners of this hollow victory will have to live with that.
Law or no law, the owners should think twice about their misguided attempt to declare a traditional public beach remote and exclusive. For their own sake as well as that of the rest of the town.
The town meeting decision should not be the end of this.
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