Vehicle Access to Stone Harbor Point Still an Issue

STONE HARBOR – Following the Mother’s Day storm in 2022, the vehicle access road to Stone Harbor Point was closed due to storm and erosion damage. Although it was later reopened, the vehicular access to the Point remains a problem. Erosion in the area is the principal culprit, especially since the borough has not had a beach replenishment since 2017.
The borough’s coastal consultant, Douglas Gaffney of Mott MacDonald, told Stone Harbor Borough Council Jan. 17 that the borough’s engineering team is considering a stone structure that would help protect the access point during periods of heavier erosion, which usually occur a year or two after a replenishment.
Gaffney spoke to a continued problem with the borough’s lack of an approved Municipal Public Access Plan (MPAP), which prevents the borough from requesting a general permit for beach maintenance.
“We call each week,” Gaffney said. “It is just sitting there with no action taken.”
Gaffney referenced the MPAP, which the borough sent to Trenton for approval. There has been a controversy over why an earlier plan was not approved, with Stone Harbor officials accusing the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) of allowing it to “slip through the cracks” during a personnel change.
The borough is seeking to renew its general purpose permit, which expired in September, and is preparing a more comprehensive permit application, which it will submit after the completion of an ongoing feasibility study.
Meanwhile, the scheduled beach replenishment will help alleviate the erosion problems at the access point for a period before it, too, starts to erode.