DEP: Fence across beach path is illegal

Agency tells owner to apply for permit or take down fence

BY LAYLI WHYTE Staff Writer

BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

LAYLIWHYTE Surfers say they have used this path to the beach for 20 years.LAYLIWHYTE Surfers say they have used this path to the beach for 20 years. DEAL – A notice of violation has been issued to the owner of an Ocean Lane property for illegally constructing a fence across a beach access point.

Property owner Alice Hedaya, Brooklyn, N.Y., was issued a notice on July 20 by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), according to Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the DEP. She said a Notice of Violation (NOV) was issued last week to Hedaya for constructing a fence on her property without a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) permit.

“The NOV was issued,” Hershey said, “and it states that immediate action must be taken to either remove the fence or apply for a CAFRA permit. As far as I know, no application for a permit has been received by us.”

Hershey said that Hedaya must take action immediately.

“If we don’t hear anything about that soon,” she said, “we’ll follow up.”

“DEP has informed us that this fence is a violation because there is no CAFRA permit for it,” said Brian Unger of the Surfers’ Environmental Alliance (SEA).

“Should they apply for a permit, we’ve been assured that a permanent beach access path will be instituted as part of the permitting process.”

Last month, surfers and other beachgoers arrived at the Ocean Lane access point to find a chain-link fence across the beach path, although a wide opening had been left to walk through.

Public access signs and trash receptacles had been removed by borough workers, at the behest of Hedaya, according to Borough Manager Jim Rogers.

Unger said previously that the area known as Phillips Avenue Beach, which runs from Phillips Avenue North to Roosevelt Avenue, has been a popular spot, not only for surfers, but for fishermen and beachgoers as well, who enjoy undeveloped beaches.

According to the SEA press release about the fence, “Surfing advocates have argued to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that the public had obtained a ‘prescriptive easement’ through Hedaya’s property under a New Jersey law (NJSA 2A;1406) that allows public easement through private property after twenty years of continuous and obvious use.”

Unger said that he is currently working on getting a written commitment from the DEP that no matter what is built at the end of Ocean Lane, public access will continue. He said he received a verbal commitment from Kathleen Cann, the DEP’s local Monmouth County coastal enforcement officer.