More than a few surfers have their wetsuits in knots over what’s been going on below pop star Taylor Swift’s oceanfront mansion in Westerly. But it’s all, shall we say, above board, a state official says.
The surfing blogs lit up Sunday after a column in the New London Day began making waves on social media. The column seemed to imply some shenanigans were in play with the seawall reconstruction going on below Swift’s $17.75-million estate, which happens to overlook a popular beach and surfing area in the exclusive hamlet of Watch Hill.
It quotes an unnamed surfer saying that the work is “completely illegal” and says Swift did not obtain “one single permit from the town” for the work.
As it turns out, Swift didn’t have to, says Laura Dwyer, spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, which regulates development in coastal regions.
Swift needed only permits from the CRMC — and she got them, said Dwyer, after close review of the seawall renovation project.
Bob Fox, owner of the Matunuck Surf Shop, said he hadn’t personally seen the work going on, but that contributors to surfing blogs were riled up about large front-end loaders working below the mansion and scooping boulders out of the sea and placing them on the seaward side of an existing concrete seawall.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Fox said. He wondered whether the topographical changes would affect the surfing.
But Dwyer said those boulders were originally placed against the seawall. Over decades, erosion had allowed them to pull away from the wall and into the water.
“The larger boulders were historically there,” said Dwyer. “We have photograph evidence from previous property owners that they were there, but they were covered with sand. When the applicant came in with plans … they were proposing to leave those rocks way out in the water. We were the ones who asked them to get those boulders as close to the seaward side of that concrete wall as possible.”
Swift made a splash in Westerly last April when she bought the Bluff Avenue mansion, formerly the summer house of Standard Oil heiress Rebekah Harkness. While many a teenager went giddy with sightings of the music phenom patronizing Watch Hill shops, some beachgoers and surfers took exception to her security force, which they said kept them away from the historically popular seawall.
A provision of the CRMC permit prohibits contractors or Swift from impeding any public right of way to the ocean or any lateral access along the shoreline.
Dwyer said the CRMC expected the permit applications from such an international celebrity would draw attention.
“Our executive director [Grover Fugate] had a feeling this was going to happen, so doing more than his usual due diligence, he went to the site a number of times, just so he had a good understanding of the present conditions, what they wanted to do, and in order to feel comfortable that this was all under ‘maintenance’ of the seawall.”
Dwyer said the project’s engineering firm also has an engineer on the site every day “because they recognize this is high-profile case and they want to be sure they remain in compliance.”
Bottom line, said Dwyer: “All is OK. Everything is on the level. They haven’t done anything wrong.”
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