SUNSET BEACH – The Appellate Division has upheld a Superior Court ruling that the Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club had no legal claim to the state-owned property on which its building stands, and has not had a valid lease for years.
According to a report published on NJ.com, the court upheld a ruling last year by Superior Court Judge Dean Marcolongo. The new ruling apparently means the club will have to move from the site, and that the building could be demolished.
The club operates on a postage-stamp-sized lot on the edge of the Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, next door to the Sunset Beach Gift Shop. The club, which started in 1950 and was officially incorporated in 1957, has been on that site for about as long.
In an unsigned statement issued Friday, Oct. 3, the Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club said, “While we are very disappointed in the court’s decision and stunned by how quickly it was returned (15 days), it’s important to note that the decision did not provide an expulsion date.”
The DEP did not immediately reply to a Herald request about the agency’s understanding as to when it would take possession of the property and the clubhouse.
The club’s statement went on to say that the judgment was a “small piece of a much larger story.”
According to the club, the DEP has maintained that it is federally restricted from selling the half-acre parcel to the club because it is located on land purchased with Green Acres Grant funds in 1999.
“This is unequivocally false,” the club said in its statement, citing a Sept. 16 letter from U.S. Department of the Interior Acting Assistant Secretary Kevin Lilly to Gov. Phil Murphy that says, “If the state determines that the land currently occupied by the club is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was acquired … the FWS [Federal Wildlife Service] could instruct the state to sell the property.”
“This is a clear statement from the [Department of the Interior] that it not only has no objections to the sale of the property but is fully willing to cooperate in any such sale,” the club’s statement reads.
It goes on to say that the property that the club is currently using is only 0.04% of the state’s project area for the Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area restoration, and the club’s existence has provided no interference or impediments to progress to the project.
The club operated first under a lease with the previous property owners, Harbison-Walker Refractories, and then without a lease altogether. After the state purchased the land, no lease was established, and no rent was paid. The club did, however, maintain a practice of paying taxes on the lot, which was part of the original lease.
The club has a club liquor license, for which it had to apply to Lower Township every year. This year the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for the land, did not send its annual letter of objection in which it would ask the governing body not to approve the club’s license, presumably because the case was already at the Appellate Division level.
Marcolongo issued a decision in May 2024 supporting the DEP’s case, but issued a stay of his ruling on July 1, 2024, while the case was being appealed. His order would have allowed the DEP to take possession of the Sportsmen’s Club building, which could have been demolished as soon as November 2024.
The DEP was, and still is, engaged in a $37.5-million ecological restoration project involving a 428-acre section of the nearly 1,200-acre Higbee reserve. The state-owned property the club is located on, which is slightly more than a half-acre, is at the western fringe of the wildlife management area.
In July 2024, Deputy Attorney General Jason Kane argued that the state’s position was that the presence of the club might threaten the state’s ability to receive federal funds for the project. At the time, Marcolongo said he thought it unlikely the state would lose federal funding based on the club’s sale of alcohol.
He had already ruled that the DEP could take possession of the club property after Nov. 11, 2024, but the ordered was stayed pending the decision of the Appellate Division.
The state has consistently declined to sell the land to the club, which also failed to negotiate a new lease with the DEP.
As reported by NJ.com, in February 2022 the DEP issued a Notice to Vacate, saying the club’s alcohol license violated state rules that prohibit alcohol in Wildlife Management Areas. The club argued that the DEP had allowed it to operate for decades, that it allowed alcohol sales on other public land it owned and leased to a golf course, and that its removal was unfair.
The court rejected those claims, finding the lease terms were clear and the DEP had provided the required 90-day notice to terminate.
The article said that the court found the club had not exercised its option to renew the lease and had no legal right to remain, and dismissed the club’s counterclaims, which included breach of contract and violations of relocation laws.
The court found no evidence that the DEP acted unfairly or violated the “square corners” doctrine, which requires government agencies to deal honestly and fairly with the public.
The DEP may now seek a warrant of removal after Nov. 11, exactly a year after the previous deadline given by Marcolongo in Superior Court.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
