N.J. fights to open up the beaches

By Jacqueline L. Urgo

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association November 2006 Newsletter)

SEA BRIGHT, N.J. - It's been called the "Berlin Wall of the Shore," and unless you are a card-carrying member of one of the nine private beach clubs in this Monmouth County shore town - forking over as much as $12,000 a year to sit on the sand - you can almost forget going to the beach here.

In fact, you can't even see the ocean over the three-story, fortress like wall that stretches for nearly a mile along Ocean Drive, separating the beach clubs - with their pools, fitness centers and beachside cabanas - from everybody else.

Trouble is, according to New Jersey's attorney general, everybody else helped pay for these Monmouth County beaches. Taxpayers shelled out $29 million in the last decade to replenish the sand upon Sea Bright's eroding beaches, according to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general last month, but the town and the beach clubs failed to make those beaches accessible to the public.

The 35-page lawsuit, filed Sept. 22, also contends that recent court decisions have clarified the public's legal right to unrestricted access to the privately operated beaches named in the suit. The suit seeks to reform 1993 agreements between the state and the beach clubs to reflect current law, said Lee Moore, a spokesman for the attorney general.

Acting Attorney General Anne Milgram called the lawsuit an "utterly appropriate" response to a succession of court decisions "striking down exclusive practices on municipal and private beaches and the extensive, long-term investment of public money that has been made in these beach areas."

Beach access has been a sore issue up and down the Shore.

Four years ago, the owners of a private condominium complex in the Diamond Beach section of Wildwood Crest and Lower Township, called the Atlantis Beach Club, tried to raise its annual beach fees for residents from about $300 a season to $10,000 for a lifetime membership.

At the same time, owners of the beach club began restricting public access through their property to an area of the beach that had been open to the public.

A court order in 2003 reopened the public access, saying that Atlantis couldn't block the public from a dry-sand area above the high-water line on that beach. Another court ruling later ordered Atlantis to establish daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal fees instead of a "lifetime" fee.

Another beach-access standoff continues in the Loveladies and North Beach sections of Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island. The state refuses to allow a $71 million sand replenishment project unless about 600 township residents agree to allow public access to their beachfront properties. So far, fewer than half the residents have agreed to the demand.

In the Sea Bright lawsuit, the state seeks to force the borough to honor commitments to operate borough-owned properties as public beaches. The borough promised to open public beaches, the lawsuit says, in exchange for the beach replenishment project.

The state also wants Sea Bright to pay $556,270 - the cost of the 2003 beach replenishment.

"New Jersey's lands, waters and living resources belong to the people of our state, and we will continue to take whatever action is necessary to protect the people's right to access these natural resources and enjoy them," said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson in a statement.

Besides the borough, the lawsuit names the Seabright Beach Club, Chapel Beach Club, Donovan's Reef Beach Club, Driftwood Beach Club, Sands Beach Club, Ship Ahoy Beach Club, Surf Rider Beach Club, Trade Winds Beach Club (now Kara Homes), and Water's Edge Beach Club.

Management or the owners of each of the clubs were contacted. They either declined to comment or did not return telephone calls.

Environmental groups applaud the lawsuit.

"When you drive down Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright, there seems to be this Berlin Wall between you and a beach that public money paid to replenish - a wall that is so high that you can't even see the ocean," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.

Tittel called "selfish and outrageous" the actions of Sea Bright Borough to limit public access to its beaches with what he called hidden access points and public parking limited to a lot two miles from the shoreline.

On a recent afternoon, Cathy Hoffman, a resident of the nearby mainland town of Fair Haven, said she was lucky to have a friend who lives close to the beach so she had a place to park her car while she took a walk with her 3-year-old daughter.

"Not there, sweetie, over here," said Hoffman as she directed the child from one particular patch of sand to another as they walked.

Hoffman said she knew better than to set foot beyond a sign reading "members only," posted near the Ship Ahoy Beach Club on Ocean Avenue.

"I've lived around here all my life, so I'm used to this very have-and-have-not system they have going here," said Hoffman, 29. "But my family doesn't have thousands of dollars a year to spend on going to the beach, so we just usually go down to Monmouth Beach or Long Branch, where it's friendlier to outsiders."

Northern Monmouth County, with at least 15 private beach clubs in towns from Sea Bright to Long Branch, has more private beach clubs than anywhere else in the state, according to the Surfrider Foundation, a national beach watchdog group.

Most of the private beach clubs have lengthy waiting lists for membership or require referral by a current member to join.

One of the least expensive, the Ship Ahoy, offers a bare-bones, locker-only membership for about $2,000 a season. At the Driftwood Cabana Club, it'll cost you about $12,000 a season to obtain key card access to one of its larger cabanas, a 50-meter swimming pool, a lap pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, and valet parking.

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