Town Administrator Nick Connors announced that Swampscott officials and attorneys from KP Law are reviewing the ongoing dispute with neighboring property owners over their claimed ownership of Whales Beach.
“The Conservation Commission along with Community Development is working closely with our town counsel to review all the settlements, agreements and lawsuits that have contributed to this confusion over the years, and we’re trying to take another close look at this to understand what access rights exist and what may need to be done,” Connors said. “There’s a disagreement over access and ownership. There are a number of cases – I think one of them went all of the way to the Supreme Justice Court – and settlements that I know KP has taken a look at in the past.”
In 1981, the Massachusetts Appeals Court decided to uphold the town’s claim to the easement by Whales Beach, allowing the public to use the area from the retaining wall through the ocean. A land court judge confirmed the “rights of the town of Swampscott, its inhabitants and (23) named individual respondents to use so much of said land as lies seaward of the retaining wall…for all usual purposes for which a beach is used.”
The abutters appealed, but the decision was ultimately affirmed after trial. Witnesses testified about the public’s longstanding use of the beach and said the Department of Public Works had maintained the area “from June 1 to September 15, depending on the weather, since at least 1956.”
In 2010, Joseph and Gladys Della Porta, owners of a waterfront parcel at 165 Puritan Road bordering Whales Beach, challenged their property assessment.
“At the hearing of this appeal, the evidence submitted established that the appellants originally owned a large portion of beachfront property, but by means of a settlement agreement and consent order dated January 11, 1988, they made a gift of the majority of the land to the town and retained a small portion for themselves,” the court review reads. “The subject property thus has access to its own small, private beach, located between two areas of ledge, marked by ‘private’ signs and cordoned off with rope.”
The Appellate Tax Board found that the Della Portas “failed to offer sufficient documentary evidence to support their claim that the subject assessment included the value of the tidal property beyond the seawall.”
The issue also surfaced during last week’s Conservation Commission meeting. Chair Tonin Bandrowicz said she would send “a little synopsis” to the committee because “the issue is complicated.”
Bandrowicz said in last week’s meeting that neighboring property owners have put up no trespassing signs at Whales Beach.
“When we told them…they couldn’t do that, they said, ‘Oh, no, no, we have a settlement agreement,” Bandrowicz said. “It’s unclear from the document where the dividing line is, but they made this claim.”
Connors said KP Law will now review the legal rights associated with the property and determine whether the town has any legal remedies available.
