Advocates Worry State Will Limit Public Beach Access

New beach access rules proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection under Gov. Chris Christie have drawn the ire of a number of environmental and advocacy groups.

During a press conference held Wednesday by the Surfrider Foundation, The American Littoral Society and Citizens Right to Access Beaches at the BarewiresSurf Shop in Long Branch, the groups spelled out their issues with the rule change proposals directly.

Released in August 2010, the DEP changes would amend rules made under the Corzine administration that set requirements for what advocates call "meaningful public access" as a qualifier for state or federal funds for beach replenishment.

Tim Dillingham of the American Littoral Society says the new DEP rules would eliminate the link between public funding and meaningful access, which advocates and the Corzine rules describe as not only lateral access to the water, but parking and rest facilities, as well. Additionally, the current DEP rules require new development in coastal areas to provide for public access. The proposed rule changes would also eliminate that requirement.

"All of those protections," Dillingham said,"are under threat by the proposal that the DEP has under consideration now."

Despite a public trust doctrine which grants residents access to tidal waters and tidally flowed lands, New Jersey has a long history of access restrictions, advocates said during the press conference.

Much of the current DEP rules, established in 2006, came as a result of beach replenishment and the fundamental fairness issues that arose from the use of taxpayer funds to build up beaches that taxpayers could not legally access. A Supreme Court decision involving eminent domain in Long Branch stated that through the public trust doctrine, any replenished beaches become public property, just like any public park. 

According to polls, the viewpoint of the groups hosting the press conference are not far off from most in New Jersey.

A late-December 2010 poll conducted by the Rutgers Eagleton Center for Public Interest says that 82.1 percent of New Jersey residents polled feel that when government funds are used to replenish beaches, towns should be required to improve visitor access.

"That's basically what the public feels is a fair trade-off," said Paul Shelly of the Jersey Shore chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. "This is not some kind of offbeat view for New Jersey."

The advocates worry that the DEP will leave the decision on how to best implement beach access to the towns themselves.

"The towns have a poor record," John Weber of Surfrider said.

The advocates feel that the DEP is likely to hold up a 2008 decision by the New Jersey State Supreme Court in the case of the Borough of Avalon v. the DEP.

In that decision, the court ruled in favor of Avalon, essentially telling the DEP that it had overstepped its bounds by circumventing a municipality's ability to regulate its own beaches. The court pointed specifically to a measure in the rules that required public access "at all times."

According to the court, "it is the municipalities, not the DEP, that owns and operates and therefore bears responsibility for the management of its beaches."

"They're using Avalon as a means of stepping back,"Dillingham said.

The DEP opted not to appeal the Avalon decision.

The proposed rule changes were first introduced in a stakeholders meeting held in August 2010. Environmental advocacy groups as well as Realtors associations and local officials were invited to the meeting to give comments, which were due in September.

The published rules were expected to be released in October or November, though to date the DEP has yet to publish a definitive set of changes. A public comment period of 60 days will follow.

The DEP draft rules are available for review by the public here.