AVALON – The borough is preparing an ordinance change that would have the borough include requirements of a CAFRA permit as part of the monitoring for a municipal zoning permit.
Even though Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit violations are an enforcement issue for the DEP, this process is deigned to more quickly discover and report CAFRA permit violations or suspected violations to the complaint-based enforcement process of the DEP.
The DEP does not regularly visit construction sights, so the borough, engaged in its own monitoring of municipal permits, will become the reporting entity to the DEP if there is evidence of a CAFRA permit violation during borough inspections.
This proposed ordinance change was part of a briefing for Avalon Council by Assistant Business Administrator James Waldron at the council’s Nov. 18 meeting. It saw strong council support.
The issue of CAFRA violations at construction sites has increased in visibility since the publicity over a high dunes site at 5609 Dune Drive where owners constructed a lawn in the dunes in violation of state regulations.
Waldron told the council that the borough has found that “CAFRA violations are not as aggressively handled” as they should be. The proposed ordinance seeks to change that.
Waldron added that the borough would also use the ordinance to establish the ability of the borough to deny both temporary and final certificates of occupancy for properties where a sufficiently material violation has been identified.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
