AVALON – Business Administrator Scott Wahl has warned the Borough Council that proposed changes to state public access regulations would require new investments “every time we seek a permit for dredging, beach backfill” or other beach and bay projects.

Wahl, speaking at the council’s Aug. 28 meeting, said the new regulations proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection would be a state mandate but a local pay, meaning municipalities would have to fund any additions to public access.

If a specific project requiring a permit could not include a public access enhancement, he said, the borough would have to pay for access projects in some other municipality that has “fallen short” on its public access responsibilities.

The borough already has a public access plan signed off by the DEP. “We would be required to add to a plan that the DEP has already found sufficient,” Wahl said. “It doesn’t feel right.”

Essentially, the DEP, which already requires permits for certain work at the shore or bay, would be using the need for a permit to force added public access projects when the agency has already approved the municipal plan for such access.

Wahl cautioned the council that this is an issue that will loom larger over the next few months and will need to be followed closely.