Posted on July 4, 2016
By Jean Mikle
With many easements still outstanding, South Seaside Park has not been included in the first phase of the long-awaited northern Ocean County beach replenishment project.
Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. is hoping to change that.
He said Township Attorney Lauren Staiger is working closely with the state Department of Environmental Protection on obtaining easements through the eminent domain process. Easements are the legal documents necessary for the U.S. Army Corps to access the beach for the project.
Amato said the properties are now in the appraisal process. He is hopeful that South Seaside Park can be included in the first phase if all the easements are in hand by September.
“It is my hope when the Corps go to bid in September we will have the remaining easements and the Corps will be able to award the options prior to the start of pumping or soon thereafter,” Amato said.
The DEP announced last week that New Jersey has obtained all the easements necessary for the Army Corps to start the beach replenishment project from Mantoloking to Seaside Park.
The DEP has been collecting easements so that the Army Corps can complete the beach replenishment work. Some holdouts had long refused to sign easements, and dozens of them challenged the DEP’s condemnation process in court.
Ed Voigt, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District, said he expects the project to go out to bid by September. Beach replenishment should get underway “before next beach season,” Voigt said.
The corps will also maintain the beaches for 50 years after replenishment. The total cost of the project over that time is expected to be about $514 million.
The initial beach replenishment project will skip Bay Head and Point Pleasant Beach, where dozens of oceanfront property owners still have not signed easements. South Seaside Park was also left out because so many easements are missing in that area.
Bay Head homeowners are in court, and have argued that they should be allowed to continue to maintain a rock wall that they credit for saving their properties from the massive damage that happened in Mantoloking. Oceanfront property owners in Bay Head have also questioned whether money will be available in the federal budget for ongoing maintenance of beaches.
Voigt said the corps still intends to complete beach replenishment in Bay Head, Point Pleasant Beach and South Seaside Park, but the area from Mantoloking south will be done first.
Amato said he was told that there would be alternate bids or alternate options for the beach replenishment project, with one including South Seaside Park and the other areas.
Source: app.com
