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WESTPORT — Two years ago, a seemingly routine road maintenance project destroyed a sizable portion of a coastal dune at Horseneck Beach.
Now, the state has returned with a near identical proposal, and some Westport residents are up in arms.
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation went before the Westport Conservation Commission last month with a proposal to re-widen a walking trail running parallel to the state-managed Horseneck Beach. State officials argued that emergency vehicles had trouble accessing the popular summer destination after years of deferred maintenance, and that the paved trail, narrowed by sand, should be widened into an emergency access road.
The application, which would expand the windswept trail from about 10 feet to 20 feet wide, was nearly identical to the project the town approved with little discussion back in October 2023. But this time, Westport officials were skeptical, requesting an independent expert to evaluate the state’s proposal.
In May 2024, Westport officials discovered that the state agency had bulldozed much of the coastal dune surrounding the trail, destroying what had become a popular recreational destination and potentially stymieing the area’s resistance to coastal erosion. The town issued a cease and desist order in 2024 and required DCR to submit a new application before it could continue the project.
“It seems to me what has happened is that DCR’s credibility has been destroyed,” conservation commission member Philip Weinberg said at the March 31 meeting.
DCR ecologist Jorge Ayub expressed regret that the road widening had impacted so much of the surrounding natural environment, and vowed that the new project would use different “construction methodologies” to preserve more of the dune.
“That was a surprise to me, too,” Ayub said of the destruction. “That’s why we’re here.”
The half-dozen public speakers in attendance expressed outrage. For these residents, the trail is a beloved nature walk, the 10-foot-high dunes offering a secluded escape from the busier beachfront. Multiple residents argued that better public safety should not come at the expense of that escape.
“It is Orwellian that the Department of Conservation and Recreation is doing this,” former New Bedford mayor John Bullard said. “We [walk] that path because of the beauty and the ecological importance of the dune, and they took it away from us.”
Emergency access
State officials argue that the widened road is critical to the state’s response time to emergencies on Horseneck Beach. At its peak in the summertime, the state-managed beach sees up to 10,000 visitors a day.
To get to Horseneck Beach, most visitors take Highway 88 to John Reed Road and park in the beach’s main parking lot. But state officials say the parking lot can create a bottleneck in emergency situations, and responders often struggle to manage traffic there. A 20-foot road running parallel to the shore, south of the parking lot, would give ambulances an alternative route to emergencies on the beach.
State officials said the beach receives 20 to 30 emergency calls each year and four deaths have occurred there since 2020.
“These patients are not in a condition where they can be thrown into a gator [utility vehicle] or an ATV,” Ayub said. “They need an ambulance.”
Several residents and commission members questioned why vehicles couldn’t make do with a 12-foot or 16-foot road that would preserve more of the surrounding dune.
DCR forest and park supervisor Jeff McGee said the 20-foot width was necessary for ambulances that need a wide radius to turn and to get around beachgoers in the busy summer months.
Gary Prince, a resident at Bridge Road, said he “rarely” sees emergency vehicles, and he had never seen a vehicle get stuck. Several residents pointed out that the far western end of Horseneck Beach is not monitored by lifeguards, making emergency response difficult regardless of roadways.
Resident Jeff Bull said a 20-foot road would only invite more reckless behavior into the area, including beachgoers on high-speed bikes and scooters.
Bull, who windsurfs at Horseneck Beach, also wondered at what point the state should be responsible for beachgoers’ poor decisions in the water.
“I could die out there,” Bull said of his windsurfing. “That is my choice. … There’s got to be some kind of personal responsibility here.”
Sand and stone
Westport conservation commissioner Jake McGuigan, who has recused himself from the decision as an abutter, said few commissioners understood in 2023 just how wide the road would go.
State officials said they want to return the road to its original width after years of wind and sand have buried it. DCR said the paved road was built 20 feet wide, but due to sand encroachment, it has not been wider than 12 feet across since 2016.
The remains of the dune that once lined the trail at Horseneck Beach now sit in a pile of rubble at the beach’s east parking lot. Ayub said that DCR plans to use the leftover sand to create a habitat for least terns near the lot. But for now, the sand sits on asphalt.
Westport Conservation Commission chairman Paul Juncas compared the state’s situation to a similar project the town attempted on Beach Avenue in 2013, when the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a cease and desist order.
The Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office chose not to review DCR’s 2026 Horseneck Beach project, a decision that Juncas called a “total turnaround” from the state’s 2013 stance on Beach Avenue.
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“Maybe we’ll apply for Beach Avenue again, since they’ve changed how they do things,” Juncas said.
Former Westport select board member Mike Sullivan, who was a major proponent of the Beach Avenue project, vehemently opposes the project on Horseneck Beach.
“It still remains to me a project without a purpose,” Sullivan said during public comment.
State officials maintained that the project’s purpose is the public’s safety.
Commissioners continued the discussion to May 26 so that the town can consult an independent expert on the necessary width for an emergency road. State officials said they hope to begin construction this September.
“Mistakes were made, but we can fix them,” commissioner Weinberg said. “We can protect the public and get a path that meets what people’s desire is, which is a peaceful place to walk.”
Brooke Kushwaha can be reached at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
More stories by Brooke Kushwaha
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