Since last month's nor'easter, local officials have scrambled to win over owners of 16 properties who have disqualified Harvey Cedars from participating in a $71 million plan to plump up the beaches on the 18-mile barrier island.

The residents have balked at a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) mandate that they first turn over property easements.

The state wants the public to be able to enjoy all 127 miles of the Jersey coast. But the Harvey Cedars holdouts, who control 16 of 82 planned easements in the town, say language in the easement agreements is too vague.

"They don't say whether they want to make a pathway or put a porta-potty in, or if they just want access to the dunes so that they can spread the sand around," said Maureen Johnston, whose house has been in her family for three generations.

Before she signs, Johnston said, she wants plans for her land specified in the deed.

The need for sand has reached a crisis in parts of Harvey Cedars, one of the beaches hardest hit in the late-season nor'easter. Roaring winds and surging tides transformed dunes into cliffs as high as 12 feet.

"We could be washed away in the blink of an eye, if the wrong storm were to hit," Mayor John Oldham said. "It's that bad here."

Johnston said residents are reluctant to hand over access to what are essentially their backyards. In Harvey Cedars the easements run between the ocean side of the homes and the middle of the dune line. Owners would not be compensated for the easements, which range from a few feet to two-tenths of an acre.

"We're completely handing over all our rights as property owners. . . . We don't trust the government enough to do that," Johnston said.

The state has taken a hard-line stance since the Long Beach Island (LBI) project was announced in 2006. Harvey Cedars officials had hoped that the easement requirement could be waived to permit emergency restoration after the storm.

They were frustrated when their request was denied, especially since, 50 miles down the coast, an emergency replenishment project got under way in Avalon last week. Resistance to the DEP mandates runs so deep in Avalon that the resort has sued over new regulations requiring 24-hour beach access.

The fill, to replace sand washed out to sea on Avalon's north end, is costing $2.4 million. The state is paying 75 percent of the tab.

"We wonder whether, when they do get around to giving us the money and helping us complete the project, if it will be too late," Oldham said. "We need this sand now."

The Army Corps of Engineers is anxious to complete the LBI project, which so far has only benefited Surf City, corps spokesman Khalid Walls said.

Of the 600 LBI residents from whom the DEP has sought easements, 10 percent have not signed on, said Dave Rosenblatt, administrator of the agency's Office of Engineering Construction. Only Surf City was in compliance.

In some locations, such as Loveladies and the North Beach section of Long Beach Township, public access to the beach has been the sticking point.

"New Jersey's lands, waters and living resources belong to the people of our state," New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement.

If the public is paying for the beach to be replenished, then it should have unlimited access to it, she said.

The state is prepared to "take whatever action is necessary to protect the people's rights," Jackson said. That includes condemnation proceedings or imposing eminent domain, officials say.

Rosenblatt said that the agency doesn't have major issues with Harvey Cedars' providing inadequate public access, parking spaces or rest rooms, as it does in other LBI towns. Most of the easements it is seeking there are to allow the Army Corps and its contractors to do their work, he said.

The longer the project is stalled, the less state and federal money might be available for its completion. Residents worry that they could sign away easements and not get anything in return.

"We've had to revise the project since we announced it in 2006 because of funding issues," Rosenblatt acknowledged. Until the federal government cut its shore-protection funds, the project was to cost $150 million and would have created a wider beach, he said.

"There's still money available for Long Beach Island," Rosenblatt said. How much state and federal funding exists - and what towns will have to kick in - will be discussed at a meeting to take place after July 18, he said.

Several factors made Avalon's emergency replenishment possible. Among them was the town's willingness to pay 25 percent of the bill.

Also working in Avalon's favor was the ability to save about $650,000 by piggybacking the beach fill onto one just completed in Ocean City. The massive dredge used in that effort had to move only 12 miles to reach Avalon.

Back on LBI, the May 12 nor'easter has raised fears about what could happen if the island were to face a storm like the one it had in 1962, when the crashing waves of the Atlantic met the roiling current of Barnegat Bay and about 600 homes were washed out to sea.

Now more than ever, residents say, delaying replenishment to make a point about future beach access puts homeowners and billions of dollars' worth of real estate in danger.

"Beach access and beach replenishment are really two different issues," said Ed Walters, whose beachside home at Atlantic Avenue survived the 1962 storm.

Walters' two-story house, where waves roll under his oceanside deck at high tide, is the poster child for the need to rebuild the beach, he said.

"The state refusing to help replenish beaches that are in serious need of help, while trying to take away property rights, has put our town in a risky place," Walters said. "I don't want to lose my house, so I want these 16 people to sign those easements."