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Dec 12, 2023

Emergency beach repairs start in Wildwood amid $33M legal fight

Heavy equipment crews are moving sand along a stretch of badly eroded beach in

Heavy equipment crews are moving sand along a stretch of badly eroded beach in North Wildwood, home to a bitter fight over how to protect its rapidly shrinking beaches.

Heavy equipment operators remove old dune fencing and other debris from a badly eroded section of beach in North Wildwood, N.J., Monday, May 22, 2023. The Jersey Shore town, which has been locked in a high-stakes, long-running legal battle with the state of New Jersey over how to protect its beaches while waiting for a federal and state beach replenishment project that is at least two years away, got emergency permission last week from state environmental officials to repair damaged dunes before the start of summer tourism season this weekend. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

A bulldozer began moving sand along a stretch of badly eroded beach Monday in a Jersey Shore town where the bitter fight over how to protect its rapidly shrinking shoreline has led to $33 million worth of litigation.

Before the summer tourism season kicks off this weekend, North Wildwood hopes to repair dunes in the most heavily eroded section of its beach and restore beach access points to usable condition. The state Department of Environmental Protection granted permission for emergency repairs last week.

The town and the state have been fighting for years over how best to protect North Wildwood's shoreline as it waits to become the last part of the state to receive a beach replenishment project that is still at least two years away.

The state has fined North Wildwood $12 million for past unauthorized work on its beaches that the state claims could actually worsen erosion.

North Wildwood, in turn, is suing the state for $21 million, which it says is how much it has spent trucking sand to the shoreline over the past decade to try to keep up with erosion.

"We are happy to get this work completed soon," said Mayor Patrick Rosenello. "But this certainly doesn't fix the much larger issue, which is the lack of a beach nourishment project in North Wildwood."

New Jersey blinks in Wildwood dune repairs standoff, allows emergency erosion fixes in defiant town

North Wildwood can reshape three blocks worth of dunes and repair public access points so they can be safely used in time for the approaching Memorial Day holiday weekend.

3 weeks ago

North Wildwood and its surrounding coastal neighbors have not received the periodic beach replenishment projects that most of the rest of the Jersey Shore has been getting for decades, due in part to the difficulty of getting approval from property owners.

As a result, it has experienced serious erosion over the last decade, and says it needs to take immediate emergency steps including shoring up dunes and building another steel sea wall to complement one it already built.

Numerous violation notices issued by the state remain active, including one that involves work the city did several years ago along a section of beachfront that it said had become badly eroded. The state said the work destroyed 8 acres of vegetated dunes, including 6.7 acres of critical wildlife habitat, and 1.1 acres of freshwater wetlands.

North Wildwood previously built a vinyl and steel bulkhead for about 10 blocks without state approval, saying it needed to act urgently to protect lives and property. That is separate from the latest bulkhead the city wanted to build, but agreed to forego for now.

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New Jersey blinks in Wildwood dune repairs standoff, allows emergency erosion fixes in defiant town

North Wildwood can reshape three blocks worth of dunes and repair public access points so they can be safely used in time for the approaching Memorial Day holiday weekend.

3 weeks ago

N.J. sets aside $4 million for Wildwood boardwalk repair

A storm damaged sections of the boardwalk near the Convention Center in April 2020. But before that storm hit, city officials had said the walkway was overdue for an overhaul.

2 years ago

Another round of N.J. beach replenishment starting soon

Beach replenishment projects continue at the Jersey Shore, with another round set to begin soon in northern Monmouth County.

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