About 584 of 588 beachfront property owners in southern Ocean City voluntarily provided easements to allow beach replenishment and dune rebuilding work to proceed in front of their homes.
Gov. Chris Christie's war on property owners who stand in the way of beach and dune rebuilding projects includes one small battle in Ocean City.
In a news release touting the governor's get-tough stance, the state Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday announced that the state had filed its first two eminent domain actions — one involving a property in Ocean City, the other in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island.
Christie is working with federal, state and local officials in an effort to fortify New Jersey's entire coastline in the aftermath of 2012's Superstorm Sandy. The federal and state governments have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to beach construction projects.
But because many beachfront property owners own rights to parts of the beach, the state must obtain easement agreements allowing work to proceed. Some have refused, often citing concerns about lost oceanfront views.
"Owners of beachfront properties up and down the coast have overwhelmingly stepped forward and done the right thing," DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. "Unfortunately, a few holdouts continue to refuse to provide easements, forcing us to seek condemnation of portions of their properties so we can move forward with projects that will protect lives and property."
The administration has secured 90 percent of the 4,279 easements needed since Superstorm Sandy struck the state in October 2012. Only 388 easements, from 244 property owners, are still needed, the DEP reported.
The bulk of the remaining easements are in northern Ocean County, ironically the area hardest hit by Sandy. Of the 326 outstanding easements needed there, 123 are in Bay Head and 68 are in Point Pleasant Beach.
LOW STAKES IN OCEAN CITY?
The state did not name the Ocean City property owner against whom the action was taken.
Of about 588 beachfront properties in the area between 34th Street and 59th Street where a massive beach replenishment project started in mid-April, only four may be subject to condemnation litigation (one of the properties has two owners).
The city took the easements from the five owners by eminent domain to allow the south end beach project to begin.
The city then passed information on the holdouts to Michael J. Ash, an attorney and eminent domain specialist working for the state to negotiate with the owners for rights to their land in the project area, according to City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson.
Ash sent the owners appraisals on the value of their easements and is entering good-faith negotiations to compensate them.
He did not return a call requesting information on the Ocean City owner and on the appraisal values. The appraisals are likely nominal.
All of the land in question in Ocean City is on the ocean side of the bulkhead (where building is not permissible). Dunes already exist across the entire project area. And the city took only easement rights for the project (not actual property).
The state Supreme Court recently held that homeowners who are subject to a property-taking on behalf of public projects "are not entitled to a windfall" that disregards the protective benefits of those projects to their own properties, according to the DEP. A Harvey Cedars couple accepted $1 as compensation in a settlement after a lower court had awarded them $375,000 in compensation when a 22-foot dune was created on a portion of their property.
WHERE ARE THE HOLDOUTS?
City Council voted unanimously in June 2014 to take seven properties by eminent domain. Since then, three have voluntarily provided easement agreements.
The seven properties were in an area between 34th and 40th streets where a wide and healthy dune system survived Superstorm Sandy.
One of the holdouts, Nicholas Talotta (3422 Wesley Avenue), was awarded $70,000 in an unrelated lawsuit that ruled that Ocean City must compensate him for his loss of ocean views from dunes constructed in the 1990s. Talotta had signed a 1995 easement agreement that promised dune heights would be limited. The city appealed the amount of the award.
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