The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection plan to have individual meetings with the municipalities over the long-planned Five Mile Island dune and beach berm project.
The Corps and the DEP held a meeting with representatives of North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Lower Township on Dec. 16 on the plan, called the Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet Coastal Storm Risk Management Project.
“The purpose of the meeting was to provide an update on the plan development and the status of the easement acquisition process,” DEP spokesperson Vincent Grassi said.
Grassi said “each municipality shared their support for the project” but added, “Some concerns were raised, including post-construction beach width and questions related to required sand quantities.”
He said there would be meetings scheduled this month to discuss any concerns about the project, on which construction is slated to begin in spring 2026, he said. Bids are expected to go out this spring.
Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. and Wildwood Crest Mayor Don Cabrera have each expressed concern about the project, which plans to borrow sand from beaches in those communities to build the 16-foot-high dune the length of Five Mile Island.
Cabrera said Wildwood Crest has a sufficient dune system and a wide beach to protect the community. Troiano has said Wildwood’s wide beach provides ample protection and expressed concerns about a negative impact on Wildwood events. Both talked about the project’s plan to reduce the width of beaches by 800 to 900 feet.
At the Dec. 30 Wildwood commissioners meeting, a resident told the board the dune project would be devastating to the city’s beaches.
Lower Township Manager Mike Laffey, responding to the Herald’s request for comment on the Dec. 16 meeting, said the township’s Planning Department reviewed the plans and was similarly concerned about the beach sand to be taken for the dune project.
“We had concerns regarding the borrow area and how it would affect the beaches in Diamond Beach moving forward,” Laffey said. “I brought that question up at the meeting [Dec. 16] at the convention center, which sparked many comments from other municipalities.”
Laffey said that Wildwood and Wildwood Crest are concerned with the borrow area and with losing up to 900 feet of beaches. In a written response to the DEP, he also referred to two letters he received from private property owners in 2021, The Grand Hotel at Diamond Beach and Seapointe Village.
Each letter was six pages long, he said, and outlined various concerns, including the fact that the beaches were privately owned and maintained. He noted that the township does not own any beaches in the Diamond Beach area.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
