Diamond Beach is an unincorporated community of less than two–tenths of a square mile. One could comfortably walk its entire length or width in minutes. It sits south of Wildwood Crest and north of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
This tiny parcel on Five Mile Island is not part of adjacent Wildwood Crest, but rather falls under the municipal governance of Lower Township. Therein lies many of the community’s problems with support and services. One prominent resident has publicly complained that “Diamond Beach to Lower Township is nothing but a cash cow.”
What makes Diamond Beach a cash cow is the disproportionate size of its ratables when compared to its size. The latest census figures show the community with just under 200 permanent residents occupying roughly 100 households out of 1,266 total housing units. With over 90% of its units vacant much of the year, the community is home to a thriving tourist economy and hundreds of second homes and condominiums.
It is also a unique community even among other Cape May County ocean-facing municipalities in that it has some of the only private beaches along New Jersey’s coast. Three large beachfront properties – The Grand at Diamond Beach, ICONA Diamond Beach and the Seapointe Village condominium complex – all call their beaches private, a subject that has generated controversy and even litigation over the years.
The issues of Lower Township support for the tiny community never seem to stop. They involve the provision of emergency services, drainage and infrastructure concerns, and even enforcement of the strange rules that apply to use of and access to the beaches.
There is a Diamond Beach Citizens Action Group that makes its presence known at Lower Township Council meetings. Yet, this small piece of the municipality, with its high–rises and gated complexes, has a permanent resident population with little real influence over how the municipality of 30 square miles and the county’s largest population conducts business in their community.
In February 2021, a contingent of Diamond Beach residents turned out for a council meeting to voice opposition to plans for the sale of municipal property to ICONA. The property is adjacent to a playground and was set to be sold for use as a valet parking area. Thirteen members of the community spoke out to no positive purpose. The municipality’s previous lease of the property to ICONA allowed for an eventual purchase. Those who had spoken out against the lease five years before had no impact in that decision either.
The point is not just the inability of the residents to influence this one sale of property. It is rather another in a string of incidents that leave the small community feeling that their taxes are important while their desires for their community are not.
On the issue of drainage and street flooding, the residents brought their issues to the state, with the result being that the state Department of Environmental Protection issued notices of violation (NOV) to Lower Township. Work on the problem in response to the NOV was “completed” in November, but residents feel it persists. Again, the point is not just that residents felt they had to turn to the state to get their issues resolved, or that they still feel the municipality’s response has not repaired the problem.
What is at issue is really the sense of being part of something, Lower Township, without being valued as a part of it. One resident told the Herald the “Diamond Beach neighborhood is just discarded by Lower Township.”
Emergency services has been a source of continued concern to the residents. Response times from the municipality’s main areas to this municipal outpost are considered unacceptable, especially when the one bridge that provides access is backed-up with visitor traffic.
Lower Township has recently privatized its emergency medical services and says it hopes to be able to station an ambulance in Diamond Beach during the summer season. There is no guarantee even that will happen, or that the new service will improve on response times during the offseason. The problem is geography.
It took years for complaining Diamond Beach residents to get a fire protection agreement in place between Lower Township and Wildwood Crest. It is unclear that the agreement would have been reached if load limits had not been placed on the Middle Thoroughfare Bridge.
It is time for officials in Lower Township to take action to restore a sense of trust with the residents of Diamond Beach. That will not come from reluctant response to issues. It is a product of ongoing and continuous effort to show genuine concern for the community even though distance increases costs. It may be time to consider a future for Diamond Beach as part of Wildwood Crest instead of Lower Township.
——
From the Bible: Blessed is he who executes justice for the burdened. From Psalm 146
