NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey resort community that has lived in fear of being wiped out by the next big storm voted Tuesday to end a decade-long battle with the state over its condition of its beaches and protective sand dunes, which cost $42. million in fines and lawsuits.
The North Wildwood City Council voted to settle with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection under which the state will rescind $12 million in fines it imposed on the city for conducting unauthorized and potentially harmful beach repair work.
The city will drop its lawsuit against the state and seek reimbursement for $30 million worth of sand it trucked in and dumped on the increasingly eroding beaches popular with tourists in the Philadelphia area.
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“It’s good to put this behind us and move on,” said Mayor Patrick Rosenello, the Republican mayor whose city doggedly fought the state, emphasizing that it would get the same kind of beach nourishment project as virtually all of the rest of the Jersey Shore . .
“All we wanted was to be treated the same as everyone else,” he said.
Although the area has been subject to severe erosion that recently eroded the protective sand dunes to the height of Rosenello’s knees, North Wildwood has yet to receive a full beach nourishment project from the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, thanks in part to funding delays and difficulties in getting obtaining easements from private property owners.
The state Department of Transportation implemented an interim replenishment project last summer after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy called the erosion in North Wildwood “shocking.” Rosenello said the work has held up well in subsequent months.
The settlement will be subject to a public comment period before it goes into effect next year. Rosenello said the full project will begin in North Wildwood sometime in 2025.
Neither the Army Corps nor the DEP immediately responded to a message seeking comment after Tuesday’s vote.
In addition to ending the lawsuit, North Wildwood will contribute $1 million toward the final cost of the federal beach nourishment project once it arrives in the city and pay $700,000 into a state water pollution control fund, the mayor said.
The agreement also provides a clear regulatory pathway for North Wildwood to obtain the environmental permits it needs to undertake other coastal protection work, including the expansion of a seawall.
On several occasions, North Wildwood made emergency repairs, including constructing an earlier bulkhead without state approval. New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette warned the city in 2023 that unauthorized work could have more serious consequences if it continues, including possible loss of future coastal protection funding.
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