On the heels of construction finishing on the Jersey Shore town’s newly-built — and state-authorized — $400,000 emergency steel bulkhead, NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said the department is looking toward more permanent solutions in the never-ceasing exchange.

But the latest letter regarding how to move forward was not absent of state officials prodding the city for repeated emergency bulkhead authorization requests and for carrying out beach fixtures it says likely caused a recent dune breach.

“Ultimately, the city’s inaction contributed to the conditions warranting the emergent bulkhead installation at 15th Avenue that the department authorized in the Sept. 26 (emergency authorization),” LaTourette wrote in the letter dated Oct. 12 and provided Monday. “Had the city collaborated with DEP in review and potential redesign discussions on its long-pending CAFRA individual permit, city-led shore protection measures could have been approved and built in the year that has passed since the city’s first EA denial in October 2022.”

“These measures,” the commissioner added, “would have protected the city against the erosion that ultimately resulted in the dune breach at 15th Avenue.”

The CAFRA, or Coastal Area Facility Review Act, regulates development in coastal zones like North Wildwood. A copy of the city’s permit was not immediately available.

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Listen also

Sand Dune Showdown: North Wildwood vs. NJ

January 16, 2023

North Wildwood vs NJ: $21M legal battle over beach erosion!

In this episode of the American Shoreline Podcast, co-hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham welcome Mayor Patrick Rosenello of North Wildwood, New Jersey to discuss the ongoing legal battle between his town and the state of New Jersey. The town is suing the state for $21 million, claiming that it spent a decade trying to hold back the waves with trucked in sand, and that the state's refusal to allow emergency repairs is putting public safety and property at risk. The NJDEP counters that there is no emergency, and that the proposed work could actually make erosion worse. Tune in to hear the latest developments and the mayor's perspective on this contentious issue. Only on ASPN!

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Patrick Rosenello, the mayor of North Wildwood, said Monday afternoon that the city’s CAFRA application for beach work between 13th and 16th Avenues — including a bulkhead — has been batted back several times since first submitted to the NJDEP in 2020.

“They continue to send it back for ‘technical’ changes, claiming that it’s incomplete,” Rosenello, a Republican, said Monday. “We have offered repeatedly to the state, you come down, you send your engineers, you design a project, you manage the project, and we will cost-share it with you. But they don’t want to do that.”

Jersey Shore towns, like other coastal communities nationwide, continue to see climate change making for stronger and more frequent storms. One aspect of that costly equation — for places like North Wildwood — has been beach erosion consistently eating away at the shoreline and putting properties and people at risk.

The latest chapter of the saga for the Cape May County city includes waiting for a federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project that’s not expected to start construction until 2025 while current storms are chewing away at the coast.

Steve Rochette, a spokesman for the Army Corps’ Philadelphia District, said Monday the “Five Mile Island Project” — which would replenish North Wildwood’s slice of beach — still needs additional real estate easements before construction can move forward.

That process could take 18 to 24 months to complete, he said.

A history of erosion and an ongoing lawsuit

North Wildwood, which hasn’t seen a beach nourishment project in a decade, is still embroiled in a $21 million legal battle with the state after it took matters into its own hands by building a different section of steel bulkhead near 3rd Avenue.

A $12.8 million fine the state later levied against North Wildwood — for past unauthorized beach replenishment work and pier renovations — has since been folded into the counter lawsuit for what the city argues has been retaliation, the city’s attorney said earlier this year.

Rosenello, whose city experienced major erosion impacts following the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia, claims emergency steel walls have been needed to keep the shore at bay as high tides and intense rainfall threaten residents, shore homes, government property and nearby power lines.

Tensions between the NJDEP and his city became heated when the mayor posted signs at beach access points asking beachgoers to voice their concerns with state officials.

And, he admitted earlier this month, emergency state approval for a bulkhead around its beach patrol headquarters was a welcome sign.

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