By MADDY VITALE
Ocean City does everything it can to protect endangered species, such as nesting shore birds along the coastline, city officials emphasized.
But when the state Department of Environmental Protection notified shore towns of a proposed rule that could be in place as early as 2025, giving the agency more oversight over the management of beaches when endangered species are present, the governing body acted with a resolution against the rule.
City Council members voted unanimously Thursday night against the proposed DEP rule, specifically because it duplicates much of what the city already does, officials said.
City Business Administrator George Savastano explained during the Council meeting that the DEP is proposing a regulation titled: “Access restriction to tidal waters and adjacent shorelines for endangered species protection.”
He noted that the DEP had a stakeholders meeting in the fall and reached out to the counties about the new rule.
Cape May County hired a company to represent all of its 16 municipalities, including Ocean City, to voice concerns about the proposed rule, Savastano said.
He noted that Ocean City already does its part to protect nesting birds and other endangered species.
“We have a lot of plans, laws and regulations in place that protect our threatened and endangered species,” he pointed out. “We are highly regulated, and we have great protections in place. Put this (the new DEP rule) into place and it is government overreach.”
He said that after discussion, the city’s recommendation was to approve the resolution opposing the rule.
The rule, he cautioned, could in effect shut down the city beaches if someone “sees footprints in the beach of an endangered species” that is nesting there or could be nesting there.
According to the Council resolution, “The City of Ocean City has concern for the DEP’s proposed new rule that would expand seasonal closures of beaches, tidal waterways and beach entranceways during the high season in our shore town communities.”
Savastano explained that the regulations would “not only have the potential to duplicate species protections, but associated access restrictions that would come about would occur on an as-needed basis and would be implemented at the discretion of the DEP.”
This, he said, would be “without legislative authority.”
A copy of the resolution will be sent to lawmakers in Trenton and to Gov. Phil Murphy as well as the DEP, he said.
Prior to the vote, Ocean City resident and environmental advocate Donna Moore urged Council to pull the resolution from the agenda.
“This is about preservation, protecting wildlife, protecting endangered species, nesting birds along the coast, wetlands habitats for endangered species — think diamondback terrapins or other endangered species in our wetlands,” Moore said. “This is about protection.”
Moore said that the resolution as it is written “is about opposition to protection and preservation.”
She said that any way that the city could help provide safeguards to protect the threatened and endangered species, it should do so.
“There are not many shore avian nests on our coast and we are lucky when we have the rare occurrences each season to actually see some of the endangered birds,” she said. “Instead, we are fighting because the DEP is trying to protect these to a greater degree.”
