DIAMOND BEACH — The state Department of Environment Protection (DEP) has determined persons have the right to use the beach in front of the site of the future Grand at Diamond Beach Condominium at 9601 Atlantic Avenue.
Two weekends ago, Lower Township police warned persons using the strip of beach to leave 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.
DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey told the Herald Monday the Grand condo project has a CAFRA (Coastal Area Facilities Review Act) and a beach and dune maintenance permit.
“Both those permits require public access as a condition,” she said. “Upon learning of this, DEP compliance officials did take a trip down there to enforce the terms relating to public access and specifically spoke to representatives for the developer as well as the local police authorities.”
Hershey said if there was a safety hazard with sunbathers being too close to a construction site that is understandable, but the public should have access to the ocean. She said it was her understanding the beach at the Grand was large.
“We did advise the developer’s representatives and police department that they can’t keep people out of the ocean,” said Hershey.
She said the public also has the right to relax and sunbathe on some of the dry sand.
On the weekend of July 21-22, beachgoers on the Grand beach told police they had the right to use the beach, 50 feet from the high tide line. An eyewitness said 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.
Former Lower Township Solicitor Tony Monzo told the Herald last week, as he remembered the case, the public had the right to sit at the shoreline or go into the ocean.
