By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics editor
Identical Assembly and Senate bills that would establish the public’s right to access ocean beaches and other tidal waterfront property are scheduled for a hearing before the New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste Committee.
The panel will meet at 2 p.m. on Thursday, February 14 in Committee Room 12, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ.
A4221, sponsored by committee chairwoman Nancy Pinkin, and S1074, sponsored by Senate Environment and Energy Committee chairman Bob Smith, seek to strengthen public access to the waterfront guaranteed in law under the public access doctrine.
The sponsors say their bills take into consideration the rights of private property owners and government and business facilities.
The legislation provides a statutory foundation for rules and regulations of the Department of Environmental Protection that govern such properties as marinas, existing public access on such properties, and future permit applications for similar facilities.
The bills exempt airports, rail yards, and nuclear power facilities.
[See related stories below]
New Jersey is crossed and surrounded by tidal waters: the Atlantic Ocean, the Delaware, Hudson, Raritan, Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, and the Newark, Raritan and Delaware Bays.
Beach access has been a controversial issue for decades in New Jersey where some municipalities and beachfront property owners have successfully limited public access.
Surfing and environmental groups have found it difficult to challenge those limitations in court. They believe their chances would improve if state law is tied to the Public Access Doctrine.
S-1074 passed the Senate 36-4 on June 21, 2018.
The committee also will consider:
A5034 (Pinkin) – Authorizes sale and conveyance of certain State-owned real property in Stafford Township, Ocean County to US Fish and Wildlife Service. (pending intro and referral)
ACR197 / SCR137 (Pinkin / Vainieri Huttle / Murphy / Smith / Sarlo) – Urges DEP and EDA to establish plastics recycling marketplace.
ACR198 / SCR135 (Pinkin / Kennedy / Greenstein / Bateman) – Urges cooperative approach among all levels of government to provide funding and other resources to clean up plastic pollution.
Related public access stories:
NEW: Group sues New Jersey town over public beach access
New Jersey beach access bill advances; hard decisions remain
