Resident Asks for Shadeland Avenue Beach Access

CAPE MAY BEACH — Don Ochs, Tahoe Avenue resident and president of Victorian Charm Development Company, asked Lower Township Council Monday to open up a path at the end of Shadeland Avenue and Bay Drive to allow beach access.
Ochs said e-mails have been exchanged over three years between a property owner and the township on the issue “but apparently nothing has been done.”
He said there was nothing but woods where there should be a street or access path.
Mayor Walter Craig said it was the first time he had heard about a beach access problem at Shadeland Avenue.
Township Manager Joe Jackson said he was familiar with the situation. He said the lot in question, which contains a winding path to the beach, has been sold and a house would be built on the property, “so there is no beach access where there was one in the past.”
The property does not line up directly with Shadeland Avenue.
Jackson said there was a 25-foot wide right-of-way to the beach for a storm drain outfall pipe.
Ochs said a township map showed a paper street.
“Make it a street, that’s just as good as an access except a lot more expensive,” he said.
Jackson said the township would need permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to move the dune or cut a path. He said it could be an item in next year’s budget and accomplished during the winter.
Ochs complained the property owner put up a fence. A sign on the fence reads beach access is available at Hollywood Avenue, which is one block away.
Wesley Ochs, of 415 Tahoe Avenue, said a clamshell path at the end of Shadeland Avenue was recently turned into a private driveway.
Deputy Mayor Robert Nolan said right-of-ways to the beach have become undefined and have encroached on private property. He said easements for storm water outfall pipes were only for the underground pipes.
He said the township’s objective would be to get DEP approval to have beach access wherever the storm drainpipes were located. Nolan said vegetation has become overgrown and properties along the bay have been bought and sold, not presenting a clear path to the beach.