NORTH WILDWOOD – The City Council has approved an agreement that settles the city’s differences with the state Department of Environmental Protection over beach protection measures.
The approval on Dec. 3, technically an authorization to execute an administrative consent order with the DEP, means that the city will drop a $21 million lawsuit it filed against the agency, and the DEP will rescind $12 million in fines against North Wildwood.
Mayor Patrick Rosenello said the city would have to pay $1.7 million in fines to resolve the matter.
“It’s a long time coming,” Rosenello said of the ending to the long-running dispute.
The council resolution on the consent order said the city had spent $20 million over the past decade on beach protection, which is about how long it has been waiting for the island-wide, Hereford Inlet to Cape May Inlet dune and beach berm project.
The project, which was presented to the public in 2013, has been languishing, in large part due to towns not securing real estate easements to allow the construction of a 16-foot dune to protect property adjacent to the beaches.
While waiting for the joint U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/DEP project, the city replenished beaches by trucking sand from other areas, called back-passing, and by constructing a bulkhead between Third and 13th avenues.
“The main violation from the DEP was the installation of the bulkheads third to thirteenth,” Rosenello said. “Then in conjunction with that were other violations, such as disturbed dunes, freshwater wetlands, but there was really no dune left by that time.”
The mayor acknowledged that some of the work was performed by the city without permits; however, he said at the time of the violations that he would take whatever actions were necessary for shore protection, and to protect property and lives.
As outlined in the city’s resolution on Dec. 3, the DEP filed suit in Superior Court to enjoin the city from taking any further unilateral actions concerning the beaches.
In April, dialogue began between the office of Gov. Phil Murphy and the city, aided by the efforts of state Sen. Michael Testa. During a tour by the governor of a boardwalk restoration project in Wildwood, Testa told Murphy it would be a shame to have a nice boardwalk with no beach to look at. In June, a beach fill project run by the state Department of Transportation pumped 750,000 cubic yards of sand onto North Wildwood beaches. Much of the sand is still in place.
“There has been a little fluctuation in sand at certain locations, but it has held up better than the truck back-passing,” Rosenello said. “I thought it would hold better if we were placing wet slurry rather than dry sand. It created a better beach. We finished pumping in June and we are here in December, and some places didn’t lose a foot of sand.”
As part of the agreement, the city will remove the Lou Booth Amphitheater, which Rosenello said was built sometime in the mid-1980s on what he called a “rock-strewn lot.” The site currently bears a sign indicating it is a Green Acres project, saying, “This site dedicated to permanent recreation and open space.”
“Over the years a wetlands and dune formed,” Rosenello said, surrounding and hugging the amphitheater.
The amphitheater came to the attention of the DEP when North Wildwood applied for a Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit to reconstruct the facility, which would have essentially meant the rebuilding of the amphitheater in a dune. Instead, it became a prime area for a mitigation project.
“We will look at an alternate location,” Rosenello said, referring to the agreement as a fair tradeoff.
All told, the mayor said, the agreement culminated in about $57 million in shore protection for the city. He said that figure includes the beach nourishment project completed by the DOT in the summer and the seawall extension. He said the North Wildwood portion of the $57 million was about $7 million.
Asked if the city’s relationship with the DEP was now on an even keel, Rosenello said that even during what he called “the worst” of the back and forth, the city engineer and environmental consultant were working on different permits with the DEP.
“Our relationship was not broken, but it was certainly contentious. It remains professional,” he said.
A DEP spokesman issued a statement thanking Rosenello and the city for their collaboration in efforts that will benefit the city and all of Five Mile Island.
“The resolution of preexisting compliance matters will enable DEP to advance both the North Wildwood seawall and Five Mile Island engineered beach and dune projects, which we expect to begin construction in 2025,” said Larry Hajna, the spokesman.
He went on to say that, to ensure full public review of the proposed settlement, notice of the administrative consent order will be published in the DEP bulletin on Dec. 18 and is subject to a 30-day public comment period.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
