A No Trespassing sign is posted at the entrance to the beach on Garfield Terrace in Elberon where local environmental activists held a press conference to protest the state’s proposed beach access rules. KRISTEN DALTON LONG BRANCH — Environmental activist John Weber walked onto the beach in Elberon, past a No Trespassing sign, to make a point about obstacles to the public’s access to beaches in the state.
Weber, along with several other stakeholders, held a press conference on the beach off Garfield Terrace on April 18 just two hours prior to the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) public hearing on revised beach access regulations.
“We figured we’d show you a great example of access that is supposed to be public that doesn’t seem to be public,” Weber said. “It is on the public access map, and this map on the DEP website has been there for a couple of years now.”
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said at the press conference that the DEP’s proposed rules would negate access along the coast.
“We are standing on land that belongs to all of us in New Jersey,” he said. “These rules that they proposed are jokingly called the beach access rules, but really that’s an oxymoron.
“What these rules do is take the side of the marina owners, the casinos, the large developers and the people with the big McMansions,” he added. “This is really an issue about equality more than anything, because we own these beaches, and they take the side of the 1 percent as opposed to the 99 percent.”
According to Weber, the DEP has been made aware of the signage on Garfield Terrace but has yet to act on the obstruction to public access.
“The DEP has been working on revising these rules for a couple years now and DEP officials have been brought to this site,” he said. “They haven’t addressed this, and yet they are going ahead with these major changes to the rules.
“If this is what they call public access, I’m not sure if it’s worth preserving.”
Weber has been critical of the state’s public access plan, particularly the provision that allows individual municipalities to create and submit their own public access plans.
He has also frequently suggested that beach replenishment funding should be tied to beach access, citing Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach as towns that receive funding but provide limited access.
Weber estimated that 90 percent of the municipalities along the coast provide adequate public access.
Tittel said the new rules would have an impact on the state’s tourism.
The harder it is to get to the beach, the less likely it is for people who want to vacation to want to come here, he said.
Ralph Coscia, president of Citizens Right toAccess Beaches, said the proposal is a step back from the previous adoption of access rules in 2007.
“The previous rules were working, and we thought we were on the right track,” he said. “Unfortunately now we think we are going backward.”
Ray Manell, longtime member of the Asbury Park Fishing Club, said he has shown DEP officials access problems in the area.
“We brought them all over the shore and showed them the key spots where there are problems,” he said. “They felt they couldn’t do anything with those problems.”
Manell said Deal and Elberon are two areas where access is problematic.
He also said some areas provide adequate access, but do not have enough parking.
Debbie Mans, executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper, said the access rules also impact the northern part of the state.
“The public access rules are not just about the beach, they are about all of the waterfront in New Jersey,” she said. “They [urban residents] don’t have access to their waterfront, and they don’t always have the opportunity to come down here and enjoy the beach.”
Mans said she also asked the state, to no avail, to hold a hearing in the northern part of the state.
The proposed access rules have come under fire from stakeholder groups that claim the proposed rules would allow municipalities to obstruct public access along the waterfront.
Several advocates spoke out against the proposal during the public hearing held at the Long Branch City Hall after the protest.