Margate throws in towel in dune dispute with state
Margate is throwing in the beach towel and ending its long and expensive challenge to New Jersey's dune project. City officials confirmed Wednesday that they would not appeal a judge's April ruling that the state may seize municipal and private properties to create protective sand dunes along the beachfront.
Margate is throwing in the beach towel and ending its long and expensive challenge to New Jersey's dune project.
City officials confirmed Wednesday that they would not appeal a judge's April ruling that the state may seize municipal and private properties to create protective sand dunes along the beachfront.
"On the advice of a lot of people, the [city] commissioners agreed unanimously that the risk/reward was not there in respect to taking it any further," said Richard Deaney, Margate's business manager.
Deaney said, however, that the city "still has a lot of concerns about drainage and access that we want to see addressed."
The commissioners' unanimous decision, reported by the Atlantic City Press on Wednesday, followed a meeting May 31 with state and federal officials.
It appears to end a three-year legal challenge to Gov. Christie's plan, following Hurricane Sandy, to build or enhance a line of dunes along the Jersey Shore to protect properties from waves and storm surges.
After the storm, Christie ordered that the Department of Environmental Protection, with the Army Corps of Engineers, complete long-planned projects that would place a protective dune along the entire 127-mile coastline.
But Margate vigorously challenged the project within its own borders, prompting Christie to call city residents "selfish."
Residents twice voted to pay for legal action to block dunes on grounds of cost, negative impact on beaches, and their assertion that the back bays, rather than the ocean, have caused the greater damage in storms.
Their various suits asserted that the city's own system of beachfront bulkheads was sufficient protection against storm surges, and challenged the state's right to exert eminent domain over the city's 87 municipal beachfront parcels and some held privately.
After numerous legal skirmishes in state and federal courts, however, Superior Court Judge Julio L. Mendez ruled in April that the state may seize the parcels to resume the $40 million project.
In his 65-page ruling, Mendez said the state's use of eminent domain was "not arbitrary and capricious" or an abuse of power.
The Army Corps' Absecon Island Plan had been approved by Congress, Mendez noted, and developed by dozens of experts over six years to "protect vulnerable coastal communities from significant storms, and prevent the loss of human life and property."
"The state of New Jersey has taken the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy to heart," Mendez wrote.
Deaney said Margate's challenge to the project had cost the city about $300,000 in legal and engineering costs. He said he was not aware that any homeowners were continuing their own independent legal challenges.
Ed Voigt, spokesman for the Philadelphia district of the Army Corps, said that the corps expected to award a contract around July after receiving bids on the project, and that work might start in the fall.
It would link dune projects already begun in Ventnor to the north and Longport to the south. The three municipalities and Atlantic City occupy 8.1-mile-long Absecon Island.
Charles Sabatini, Ventnor's city engineer, said that about two-thirds of his city's dune project was complete. The remaining project would link Richards Avenue to Fredericksburg Avenue, Ventnor's border with Margate.
Bob Considine, spokesman for the DEP, said Wednesday that the department was "eager for the project to go out to bid and for the work to finally get started. For us, this has always solely been about providing the most protection for residents and businesses along the coast,"
Considine said the DEP "feels strongly" that a dune project is the "best approach against major storm events."
"As we stated in the courts, you don't want high tides pounding against a bulkhead. You want dunes to absorb the wave energy, and you want more sand in the system. Absecon Island has seen a net loss of sand over the years. Without this project, the three towns that will benefit from the project are much more vulnerable."
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