SUNSET BEACH – For a couple years now, the state Department of Environmental protection has been trying to make the Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club disappear.
Ironically, about one year ago the club’s attorney said the club would like to be invisible.
It might be up to the New Jersey Supreme Court to decide which side will get its wish.
Christopher Gillan-Schwartz, the attorney, filed an appeal to the high court on Thursday, Oct. 2. Two days earlier, the Appellate Division upheld a ruling by Superior Court Judge Dean Marcolongo that the club would have to vacate the state land upon which it sits.
The club has argued that it has been in the same location since 1957 and had a lease with the previous owners until the state bought the land in 1999.
The DEP filed an eviction action against the club in June 2022.
The contention began when the state purchased a little over 148 acres owned by Harbison-Walker Refractories, known locally as the magnesite plant. The Sportsmen’s Club building sits on 0.57 acre of land that was part of the DEP purchase.
According to a brief prepared by the club’s attorney in May 2024, upon purchasing the property in 1999 the DEP acknowledged the club and called for its incorporation, and represented that the club would be allowed to retain possession of the clubhouse and use the half-acre under it.
The club, which has about 200 members, was formed in the 1940s by a group of local sports fishermen. In the 1970s it applied for and received a liquor license.
In 1982, the club entered into a formal lease with Harbison Walker, which said the club would have possession of the clubhouse and, rather than rent, would pay the taxes on the 0.57 acre.
In February 2021 the DEP concluded that the club’s sale of alcohol was a non-conforming use. The agency in June 2022 filed to evict the club from the property.
In May 2024 Marcolongo issued an order supporting the DEP’s motion for summary judgment, and the club immediately appealed. The Appellate Division subsequently upheld that order.
The club’s liquor license had to be renewed annually, requiring a resolution from Lower Township Council. For several years, the DEP sent letters to the township requesting that it not approve the liquor license, citing DEP policy of permitting no alcohol sales or consumption on state-owned land.
While Gillan-Schwartz was speaking to the Township Council about a year ago during consideration of the annual renewal of the club’s liquor license, he said that the club didn’t want all this attention, that it would prefer to be invisible.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
