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U.S. NEWS Thursday 21 February 2019

Bad Deal? Suit fears shore towns

closing beach access points

lowing Superstorm Sandy.
While they don’t faze surf-
ers and fishermen, who use
the spot daily to get on and
off the beach, the boul-
ders can make it difficult
for others to use. The town
says it has an official beach
access point two blocks
away, and denies it is elimi-
nating any existing beach
access.
Deal says its agreement
with the developer prohib-
its anyone from blocking
visual access to the beach
and ocean, and it main-
tains a 12-foot-wide strip
of land enabling access
to the end of the property
where the boulders begin.
That would preserve the
existing level of access, the
town maintains.
Paul Fernicola, an attorney
for Deal, told The Associ-
This Feb. 5, 2019 photo shows boulders leading down to the beach in Deal, N.J. on a street end that ated Press that no physi-
the town plans to give up to a private property owner.
Associated Press cal barrier will be erected
By WAYNE PARRY owners. The new owners trust for the public. to block people from get-
Associated Press might then block off spots The American Littoral So- ting onto the boulders and
DEAL, N.J. (AP) — It was the public has long used to ciety says the street, Nep- then accessing the sand.
hard to tell what had Matt reach the sand, according tune Avenue, has long But the Littoral Society and
Schwartz more stoked: the to access advocates. been used by surfers, fisher- other beach access ad-
waves rolling in, or the rel- “It’s definitely not fair what men and others. vocates fear that will be
atively balmy 64-degree they’re doing,” Schwartz “Public access to the what happens eventually.
February weather as he said as he peeled off his beaches and tidal water- Deal’s mayor and the par-
wrapped up a day of surf- wet suit and put his surf- fronts of our state is con- ent company of the devel-
ing. board away. “It seems like stantly under attack,” said oper that would acquire
But something else was they cater to one class of Tim Dillingham, the group’s the land did not respond
bothering him: the possibil- wealthy people here. I own executive director. “We to messages seeking com-
ity that he won’t be able to a business and I pay taxes, are taking this action to ment on Thursday.
surf here for much longer. and I should be able to prevent the loss of this im- John Weber, a borough
The spot where Schwartz walk on a public beach.” portant public access way councilman in nearby
carried his board ashore Deal says no physical barri- to the beach, and to en- Bradley Beach, is a long-
is the latest flash point in er will prevent people from sure that other towns aren’t time surfer who has seen
a decades-long battle in walking out onto the rocks tempted to sell off the pub- Deal discourage public
New Jersey and elsewhere and the sand even after lic’s rights to the highest beach use for decades
over who can reach and the street end is vacated. bidder.” by writing tickets to surfers,
use the beach. But surfers and fishermen Deal counters that the and trying numerous times
The American Littoral So- are worried that is exactly end of Neptune Avenue to restrict parking near the
ciety is suing the borough what will happen once the has never been an offi- beach to residents only.
of Deal, trying to nullify an transfer goes through. cial beach access point. “They just don’t get that
ordinance it passed in De- “In the 1850s, our courts It notes that on an official the beaches belong to ev-
cember that would vacate recognized the value of inventory of such places eryone,” he said. “Surfers,
the end of an oceanfront street ends in providing the maintained by the state anglers, all sorts of people,
street in return for a $1 mil- public access to the shore,” Department of Environ- not just people who live in
lion payment from a near- said Andrew Provence, the mental Protection, the av- their town.”q
by landowner who wants lawyer for the Littoral Soci- enue is listed as a visual
the property as part of a ety. “It is important to fight access-only spot, meaning
development proposal. this new notion that street people can stand there to
The group, which has ends ... can be vacated for look at the ocean, but not
fought for decades to the right price.” use it to walk down onto
preserve the public’s right New Jersey law regard- the beach.
to access and use public ing beach access is based A corner of the street end
beaches, fears a danger- on legal principles dating opens onto a row of large
ous precedent may be set back to the Roman Empire, boulders, placed there as
in which coastal towns sell in which the tidal waters part of a recent beach
street ends to private land- and beaches are held in replenishment project fol-