Brick's Line in the Sand: Sign Dune Easements or Face Legal Action

A day after the state Supreme Court ruled that a Harvey Cedars couple who lives on the oceanfront in that town could not receive a $375,000 "windfall" for refusing to sign an easement allowing a beach replenishment project to go forward, Brick has drawn its line in the sand on the issue.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis announced late Tuesday that Brick has set an Aug. 1 deadline for all oceanfront homeowners to sign an easement to allow a federally-funded beach and dune replenishment project to go through in Brick or face legal action.

"I am disappointed that there are still holdouts that are putting our community at risk for the sake of an ocean view," said Acropolis. "We will not stand by and allow them to continue to put our community and their neighbors at risk and come August 2, we will take the appropriate actions against any holdouts."

Acropolis also expressed his thanks to the 61 oceanfront homeowners out of 125 total who have signed the easements, which would allow the 22 foot-high protective dune to be constructed and maintained for 50 years.

Mantoloking, earlier this year, hired an attorney to handle potential condemnation proceedings against its homeowners who refuse to sign easements. The easements would be taken through eminent domain.

The dunes would protect the township coastline from breaches in future storms. A breach in Mantoloking during Superstorm Sandy is blamed for the flooding of thousands of homes in the township's barrier island section as well as across the bay in the mainland portion of the township.

"Sandy clearly showed the benefit of a strong dune system," said Acropolis. "The worst devastation on the Jersey Shore was in areas where there was insufficient protection from dunes and seawalls. And it isn’t just the Barrier Island at risk – I strongly feel that the flooding on the mainland of Brick Township was made significantly worse when the ocean breached the island in Mantoloking where there weren’t strong dunes."

An $86 million replenishment project has been designed, approved and funded for Ocean County's northern barrier island, but it has yet to get off the ground due to the failure of oceanfront residents to sign easements, which are needed in order for the work to be performed on a sliver of what is privately-owned land. Oceanfront homeowners have balked at signing the easements, arguing they could lose their ocean view or be forced to allow the public to access the beach through their private property. Officials have assured residents that public access points will remain as they currently are.