Police Tell Bathers: No Beach, Ocean Access

DIAMOND BEACH — Lower Township police warned persons using a strip of beach in front of the site of the future Grand at Diamond Beach Condominium at 9601 Atlantic Avenue to leave the beach July 21 and 22 because they were trespassing on private property.
Township officials and the beach’s owner disagree with the interpretation of a state Supreme Court decision allowing the public access to the area of wet sand and the ocean.
Town Bank resident Janice Wasnick said a beach tagger was approaching people on the beach asking to see their tags. A family that owns a condo on the West side of Pacific Avenue in Diamond Beach informed the tagger they were told they would have beach access anywhere in the community when they purchased their condo, she said.
Wasnick said the family crossed over the border to Wildwood Crest and refused to give their names to police.
“That’s when all hell broke out,” she said.
The crowd grew to over a dozen people.
Wasnick said people on the Grand beach told police they had the right to use the beach 50-feet from the high tide line. She said the officers informed beachgoers they were trespassing and “were not even allowed in the water.”
Two years ago, Robert Ciampitti, owner of a 480-foot wide stretch of beach known as Atlantis Beach Club in Diamond Beach, lost a state Supreme Court decision to restrict much of his private beach at the end of Raleigh Avenue for club members only.
In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled the beach must be available to the public at a reasonable fee.
Ciampitti’s attorney Louis Belasco said at the time that Atlantis Beach Club was subject to a court order under the Public Trust Doctrine, which allows the public to use any beach up to the high water line. He said the Supreme Court decision allows the public to also use the dry sand area of the beach, in addition to the wet sand.
Eustace Mita, a principal owner in the Grand at Diamond Beach (Achristavest LLC), told the Herald the area is a construction site and access is not allowed.
“As soon as the Grand is complete and we have the first settlement, no question about it, they can use it up to the high water line,” said Mita.
Archristavest also owns the neighboring Pier 6600 Hotel. He said guests of the hotel could use the beach behind Pier 6600, but not the public.
Mita said the public could only cross the beach but not use it.
“You can understand if you pay for a beach tag and there is somebody using it that didn’t, then that upsets the people that paid for the tag,” he said.
Mita said he lost about $40,000 a year on the beach from the expense of cleaning and guarding it.
Attorney Tony Monzo was Lower Township solicitor during the Atlantis Beach Club case. He said the Supreme Court ruled that the public must be provided with a reasonable means of access across privately owned beaches to the water including the entire wet sand plus a buffer area.
“Even if you own a beach, you can’t stop somebody from being on the wet sand at the high tide line or in the water,” he said.
Monzo said, while he was solicitor, the township’s position was to not become involved and to respect the court’s ruling. He said even before the court ruling, the township would not remove people from the beach or issue summonses.
Monzo said as he remembered the case, the public had the right to sit at the shoreline or go into the ocean. Beach owners also have riparian rights 300 feet into the ocean.
“Regardless of that, the court still ruled that under the Public Trust Doctrine, it doesn’t matter if you own the wet sand and you own the water, you can’t prevent the public from using it,” he said.
Township Manager Joe Jackson said he believed the public only had the right to walk onto the beach directly to the water and make a left or a right or go to Wildwood Crest’s beaches or the Coast Guard beach in Lower Township.
“They don’t have the right to stop or to use the water attached to that beach,” he said.
Lower Township Police Capt. Lou Russo said people accessing the beach without purchasing beach tags were asked to leave or be charged with defiant trespassing. He said he did not agree the public had the right to use the wet sand of a private beach.
“The only difference between Diamond Beach and Cape May is Diamond Beach is in private ownership rather than government ownership,” said Russo.
He said the Supreme Court ruled the public must have access to the beaches but that is accomplished by setting a reasonable beach fee. Russo said as long as a beach tag is available at a reasonable fee, beachgoers are required to purchase one to get access to the water.
He said Pier 6600 charges a $5 daily beach tag fee or a group of six tags for the summer season for $300.
Russo said the beach in Wildwood Crest was very crowded over the weekend with little space available near the water while the Grand and Pier 6600 beaches were sparsely populated. He said he suspected residents “were testing the waters,” as far as enforcement on the private beaches.
In June 2002, more than 200 residents marched to a gate blocking a stretch of private beach owned by Atlantis Beach Club here on Raleigh Avenue. They requested access to the wet sand area under the state’s public trust doctrine.
The group, comprised mostly of condominium owners tired of paying $700 annual beach tag fees, were armed with a letter from Deputy Attorney General Rachel Horowitz confirming their right to use the tidally washed areas of the beach and have “perpendicular access” to use the beach front.
The gate was removed after an appellate court ruling allowing the public to walk down the beach to the ocean.
The state Department of Environmental Protection required Ciampitti to lower beach fees that ranged from $400 to $700 per year for up to eight beach tags to $55 per season per person.