| TRENTON,
NJ – Acting Attorney General Anne
Milgram announced today the filing of a
lawsuit which seeks a court order requiring
that nine private beach clubs in Sea Bright,
Monmouth County, provide unrestricted public
access to beaches in front of the clubs.
The beaches were almost entirely built through
a publicly funded shore protection project
in 1995.
Filed
today with the Chancery Division of the
New Jersey Superior Court in Monmouth County,
the state’s Sea Bright lawsuit contends
that recent court decisions concerning the
common law Public Trust Doctrine have clarified
– and solidified -- the public’s
legal right to unrestricted access and use
of the privately-operated beaches at issue.
The complaint calls for agreements that
were signed by the state with the beach
clubs in 1993 to be reformed to reflect
the state of the law on this issue.
The
complaint notes that the nine private beach
clubs listed as defendants have profited
for years by charging fees for access to,
and use of, beaches in Sea Bright that are
almost exclusively the result of a publicly-funded
beach nourishment and replenishment effort
begun in 1995 and costing $29 million in
public dollars to date.
“We
are seeking public access to beach areas
controlled by nine private beach clubs.
This request is utterly appropriate in light
of the long succession of court decisions
striking down exclusive practices on municipal
and private beaches and the extensive, long-term
investment of public money that has been
made in these beach areas,’’
Acting Attorney General Milgram said.
"New Jersey's lands, waters and living
resources belong to the people of our state,
and we will continue to take whatever action
is necessary to protect the people's right
to access these natural resources and enjoy
them," Department of Environmental
Protection Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson
said.
The state’s lawsuit seeks to ensure
that Sea Bright, as a municipality, will
honor prior commitments to operate certain
borough-owned or borough-controlled properties
as public beach areas. Those areas include
a tract once occupied by the Anchorage Pool
and Surf Club – referred to as the
“Anchorage Club” property --
and another known as the Peninsula House
property.
The
state contends that Sea Bright previously
agreed to convert one portion of the Peninsula
House property into public parking, while
operating another portion as a beach area
with unlimited public access and usage.
The borough has since breached this agreement,
the state alleges, by keeping portions of
the Peninsula House property inaccessible
and in disrepair, and by seeking to trade
away a portion of the tract to a neighboring,
privately-owned beach club in exchange for
landlocked property it has been eyeing as
a potential site for a new municipal building.
The
former Anchorage Club property is owned
by the state, but has been operated by Sea
Bright as a municipal public beach. Consistent
with an August 1992 agreement, the state
lawsuit seeks assurances that the borough
will continue to operate the property as
a public beach.
In
another count of the lawsuit, the state
asks for a court judgment requiring Sea
Bright to pay New Jersey $556,270 to cover
the municipality's share of beach replenishment
work done there in summer 2003. While the
cost of the entire 2003 project was $6.3
million, the non-federally-funded portion
totaled $2.2 million. Of that amount, Sea
Bright was to pay 25 percent, while the
state paid the balance. The lawsuit contends
Sea Bright has failed to pay any of its
portion.
The state’s request for a declaratory
judgment directing that nine clubs in Sea
Bright open their beaches to the public
would impact defendants Surf Rider Beach
Club, Donovan’s Reef Beach Club, Chapel
Beach Club, Water’s Edge Beach Club,
Sea Bright Beach Club, Driftwood Beach Club,
Ship Ahoy Beach Club, Trade Winds Beach
Club (now Kara Homes), and The Sands Beach
Club of Sea Bright.
>> Sea
Bright Complaint (715k pdf) plug-in
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