AVALON – A municipal court appearance for the owners of a High Dunes property who were cited by the borough for interfering with the dunes has been postponed for a fourth time.
Vahan and Danielle Gureghian, of 5609 Dune Drive, were cited for improperly installing and maintaining a lawn on previously undeveloped and conservation-protected dune area. They allegedly cleared more than 8,000 square feet of dune to install a lawn that surrounded a newly constructed residence.
The Gureghians were cited by the borough for code violations on Jan. 25, 2024. Their first hearing date was June 3. That was postponed to July 15, which in turn was postponed to Aug. 12. A further postponement moved the hearing to Oct. 7, and the latest has it scheduled for Jan. 6, almost a full year since the original notice of violation.
An attempt to reach the Gureghians for comment was unsuccessful.
The borough issued a statement following the latest postponement, saying, “While we understand and share the frustration of the public, the postponements have not been occasioned by the borough.” It goes on to state that “the borough’s position of habitat restoration is being advanced by the NJDEP.”
The Gureghians received a state Department of Environmental Protection notice of violation of the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act on Jan. 17, which was followed by the borough citation. Borough Business Administrator Scott Wahl said in February that the DEP alerted Avalon to the alleged illegal activity.
Both agencies may issue fines and other penalties. In its summons, Avalon set Sept. 28, 2023, as the first instance of the offense. According to Assistant Business Administrator James Waldron, who spoke about the summons at a Feb. 14 council meeting, the borough is “asking for daily penalties, which could be $2,000 per day up to the day of the adjudication.”
The DEP had originally set the end of May as the deadline for completion of restoration work on the property. A request to the DEP for a status report on the work and any new deadline for its completion elicited no response.
According to the DEP’s original notice of violation, the noncompliant activity undertaken by the Gureghians included maintaining the lawn, installing an irrigation system and the placement of wood chips. The homeowners were ordered to remove the wood chips and irrigation system, to restore “the conservation-regulated dune area to pre-disturbance topography” and to replant the disturbed area with indigenous vegetation.
The borough’s notice of violation imposed a requirement that the landowner “remediate the area back to its original condition.” The notice went on to say that “the penalty clause under Chapter 1-5.1 will be imposed for every day that the violation goes unabated,” starting Jan. 25, 2024.
The borough’s statement said: “The primary interest of habitat preservation and, in this case, habitat restoration are mutually shared by the borough and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.”
The borough’s position, according to its statement, is “upon completion of the remediation phase, the borough will move forward with adjudicating the matter,” adding that court adjudication “will be in the purview of the municipal judge.”
