Plans underway to move a second set of cottages from South Kingstown beach

Plans are well underway to move more than a dozen beachfront cottages inland in the next three years at Roy Carpenter’s Beach in Matunuck, with the earliest plans to begin this year.

The land owner tells ABC 6 that rapid erosion on the shore is prompting management to move the cottages that are a stone’s throw away from the Atlantic Ocean a quarter mile on shore, overlooking a hay field.

This comes after a recent study shows that area of the shore eroded 295 feet between 1951 and 2014.

Residents like Ed Ferrari are disappointed by the news.

"It’s kind of a shock but it’s not a shock. There have been rumblings about this going on for the last few years," said Ferrari, a 40 year cottage owner of the summer getaway community. "The wife and I are retired now and I’m not going to go through the expense of actually moving the cottage."

Ferrari’s cottage is on the shore at the west end of the beach. Roy Carpenter’s Beach owner tells ABC 6 that after Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, another two rows of cottages had to be moved on the east end.

Davis Sisson was one of the cottage owners that has to give up his ocean view for something a little less spectacular.

"When we moved, the beach was literally under my house," Sisson said. "A lot of money involved. It was probably in the high $30,000 range."

The landowner of the private beach said the first phase of the move will begin next year when the main office building will be relocated. This would be the second time that building will be pushed back in a little more than a decade because of the erosion.

He said they want to get a jump start on the inevitable and let the land naturally erode into sand.