Politics & Government

Shore Controversy: Tsunami of Discontent at Beach Access Meeting

Final public hearing in LBI was the setting for the strong current of debate

Those who came out for and against proposed changes to New Jersey's waterfront public access laws found some common ground at a final public hearing on the issue Thursday night. But strong opinions were voiced from those on both sides of the debate; and each side was clear about where their respective boundary lines were to be drawn in the sand.

The debate has been raging for some time and, most recently, at public hearings held by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The uproar is over the state's latest policies on allowing public access to waterfront areas.

The rules would change the type of access private business owners would have to provide the general public, and also put access plans in the hands of individual municipalities rather than having a blanket plan for the entire state.

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Hundreds packed the Long Beach Township municipal complex Thursday night to have their say on the issue. Many of those who attended the meeting to oppose the potential changes found common ground with marina owners who feel they should not have to provide the public with 24 hour, year-round access to their privately-owned properties — a DEP edict first proposed by the Corzine administration that is stricken in the new proposal. However, the public's right to access publicly-owned land drew widespread support.

"Public access to the shore is an essential right," said Tim Dilingham, Executive Director of the American Littoral Society, based on Sandy Hook. "This state needs to go forward. It needs to provide more access for fishermen, more access for surfers. The state needs to act as our advocate, not as an advocate for the business industry, not as an advocate for private homeowners."

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For Paul Harrison of the New Jersey Beach Buggy Association, the potential for municipal governments to determine their own access rules also raised particular concern.

"It will result in less access to the public. It will provide means for municipalities to restrict public access and parking," he said, adding that members of his group were particularly concerned that towns might restrict beach access to certain hours, shutting out anglers who want to fish late at night.

But for some who came to the meeting, it was concern over private land, not public land, that drew the most attention.

Melissa Danko of the New Jersey Marina Trades Association said the revised rules under consideration represent a "return to common sense."

She said members of her group — mostly marina owners — were often locked out of improving their properties, because in order to obtain permits to do so, the marinas would have had to provide extra public access.

That access, according to the original rule, would include walkways across the entire properties, additional parking spaces (the state had the authority to mandate businesses buy extra land for parking) and leaving properties open for access 365 days per year, even if their business was closed. The revised rules set aside such public access provisions.

"Ports, power plants and industrial facilities could be forced to provide public access," said David Brogan of the New Jersey Business Industry Association. "The new rule brings back sanity and common sense to one of the most anti-business rules in our state’s history."

Bill Figley, a retired marine biologist with the DEP who spoke at the meeting, found some middle ground.

"Some of the rules in this proposal do make sense for the marina owners, but I’m very concerned about giving the townships too much power in this process," he said. "Once you lose access, it’s gone forever, so you have to be very careful."

The meeting brought out a number of advocacy groups including the Surfrider Foundation, which submitted its formal statement as a video of Bruce Springsteen's rendition of "This Land Is Your Land" playing behind images of signage restricting access.

Another woman, who said she was an oceanfront homeowner on Long Beach Island, warned state officials overseeing the meeting that the island was "under attack" from booming populations in mainland towns wanting access to beaches, a statement which elicited groans from the audience.

But silence fell over the standing-room-only crowd when Jim Hill spoke. He drove from his home in Pennsylvania to attend to the meeting, and choked back tears as he talked about his time fishing on Ocean County's beaches.

"I used to fish the Delaware River, then they took away my access there," he said. "To lose access in the areas that I fish could be devastating. There’s not one reason in the world why we can’t all agree to keep beaches free and open to the public."

Hill said he calls the police when he sees rowdy behavior going on late at night on beaches, and always takes a trash bag with him to clean up whatever refuse he finds on the sand out of respect for the environment.

"The towns have a right to be concerned about what goes on on the beaches," he said. "If I’m not there, who's gonna call the local police? And when I leave the beach, guess what comes with me? All the trash left by everyone else."


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