Waterfront access in Newport's Point section just got easier. Here's how.

NEWPORT — The City Council unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday night designed to tackle the issue of waterfront access in the Point neighborhood.

The resolution brought forward by council members Angela McCalla and Lynn Underwood Ceglie to prevent parked cars from blocking two waterfront access points in the Point neighborhood was approved unanimously, though it sparked some discussion among councilors and the public.

The resolution directs the city to develop ordinances, which the City Council might later adopt, that would prohibit parking on the portions of Chestnut Street and Walnut Street where they meet the waterfront.

Ceglie said she uses these waterfront access points regularly to walk her dog and was proud to support this resolution to increase access. She also said the city should consider installing some kind of guardrail and extra signage to increase safety and visibility of the public access pathway.

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“I have a lot of safety concerns about the Walnut Street one,” Ceglie said. “There is no guardrail to protect anyone from driving off the cliff … I believe the city needs to look at some sort of guardrail just to stop a car in the fog or bad weather — it looks like it's just a straight through road and it's dangerous.”

In July, McCalla and Ceglie took a tour of the two public waterfront access spots on these public rights-of-way alongside Superintendent of Parks Grounds and Forestry Scott Wheeler and Tree and Open Space Commission chair Maureen Cronin, who addressed the City Council on Wednesday.

In addition to the impact cars parking in front of the right-of-way has on public access to the waterfront, Cronin said the cars also were inhibiting the city from maintaining the two access points.

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“The city cannot do maintenance on those areas anymore, it has not been able to for a number of years, because they can't bring their machinery on a regularly scheduled basis because they can’t do it because there’s a car there,” Cronin said. “Those two areas have gone without regular maintenance for years. There’s invasives (plants) coming up and down the area, the soil is eroding, it’s dangerous where the sea wall is because it’s not getting enough care.”

Residents speak out on public access to waterfront

A few members of the public testified to the points raised, including Ken Snyder, president of The Point Association neighborhood group, and Lynda Stevenson of Friends of The Waterfront, the local public waterfront access advocacy organization.

“I also have a dog and walk past those driftways multiple times a day and can also attest to the fact that they are parked up very frequently, even when there’s plentiful parking on Washington Street during the day,” Snyder said. “Construction trucks are another issue as well.”

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Stevenson thanked the councilors for taking up the issue, and highlighted other public rights-of-way in Newport that would use better regulation.

“In our opinion, there are a few things you should be taking a close look at,” Stevenson said. “It was just a few weeks ago where we sent a communication to you all to have the city look at what we determined as an infringement on the right-of-way where the Smokehouse has their refrigeration system. There’s also other rights-of-way that have paid parking on them, in our estimation.”

Councilor Kathryn Leonard went into the history of public waterfront access protection from her memories when she began serving on the City Council in the 1990s. She said the CRMC had marked these areas and asked if an effort could be made to relocate these original markers.

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While she was in favor of the resolution, Leonard argued the city should make sure its prohibition of parking in that area does not encroach on the property rights of the houses that border the two rights-of-way.

The issues brought forward by the resolution did not go uncontested. Newport resident Robert Bestoso claimed the issue is revived every few years by The Point Association because it dislikes cars parking in the neighborhood. He does not live in the neighborhood, but said he owns a boat he keeps in the area.

“Not all of the boat owners are residents of Newport and they cannot get sticker parking, so many people rely on these driftways, Chestnut Street and Walnut Street, to park their cars, because by the time 6 o’clock comes along, if they’re parked out on the street, they’ll get a ticket,” Bestoso said. “If they’re parked on these driftways, these extensions, they will not.”

The Point, as defined in the Newport municipal code under Chapter 10.32, is a designated residential parking district, meaning cars without a residential parking permit will be ticketed if found parking on one of the streets from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily between May 1 and Oct. 1.

“To limit parking down there is to limit access to the waterfront,” Bestoso said.

Bestoso said he uses the waterfront access point on Walnut Street several times a week in the winter to go rowing, and argued parking on those sections was greatly reduced after October and the access points are under used by the public in general.

Bestoso’s point was countered by a few members of the public, such as Point residents Mark Marosits and Elizabeth O’Shea, who testified to the inaccessibility of the access point year round.

City Solicitor Christopher Behan told City Council any future parking ordinance in the area could be enforced via ticketing or towing violators.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport RI: Council restricts parking on waterfront access points