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After seeing many out-of-state residents taking the trip to visit Rhode Island beaches recently, the state’s Department of Environmental Management is taking measures to ensure there is no overcrowding.
There will be reduced parking and limited capacity at Misquamicut and Scarborough state beaches, which will be restricted to Rhode Island residents.
According to the Department of Environmental Management, even with parking restrictions in place in recent weeks, state beaches in Rhode Island saw a near 80 percent increase in June visitors compared to last year.
The call for a limit on out-of-state visitors comes days after Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced beach capacity would drop from 75 to 25 percent after crowds of unmasked beach-goers were seen last weekend.
“We’ve seen crowding and poor mask compliance over the past couple weeks at these beaches,” she stated. “This puts people at risk, so we're reducing parking to cut down on the volume of visitors.
“Please note that this does not mean you should just park elsewhere and walk to the beach,” Raimondo added. ”We’ll be working with municipalities to crack down on illegal parking in areas around our beaches.
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