Loch Arbour will try to be a part of the first phase of the state’s beach replenishment project, per a resolution passed at Monday night’s special commissioners meeting.
By being included in the first phase of beach replenishment, overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection [DEP], the village will not have to pay for any of the construction work, Mayor Paul Fernicola said.
Beach-front property owners must sign easements to enable the work to be completed, Fernicola said. If they sign the easements, the state can then determine whether to include Loch Arbour.
Municipalities will not be expected to make a financial contribution for the first phase, Fernicola said, but they may be asked to pay some of the costs — likely around nine percent — during the second or third phases. There is no guarantee that the second or third phases will go forward, he said.
The goal of the beach replenishment project is to restore the shore area to its pre-Hurricane Sandy elevation condition. The Eighth Avenue jetty will not be notched, and no more sand will be added to the beach than was already there before Hurricane Sandy, architect Peter Avakian said.
The Army Corps of Engineers had not responded to Avakian’s request for information on what study they’d be using to determine Loch Arbour’s pre-Sandy beach profile, or what plans they had for the replenishment, Avakian said.
The boroughs of Allenhurst, Deal and Loch Arbour were not included in the original project. In order to be added to the coastal municipalities involved in phase one, Loch Arbour commissioners unanimously passed a resolution granting easements to contractors, who will be selected via bidding process in May and June.
Two forms of easements are being proposed, Fernicola said. One is a temporary construction easement that would grant access to the contractor hired by the state and Army Corps. The other easement is a public access easement.
State and federal funds will not be used to create wider beaches so that private owners can restrict access to the public, Fernicola said.
Recreational fisherman, surfers, scuba divers and environmental groups sometimes are not in favor of beach renourishment, Avakian said. These groups may think that the renourishment would change the conditions and environment, but the primary focus of this move is to protect the beach and properties.
“The single most important aspect of protection of private and public property from damage is the sand profile. If you have a wide enough beach, a long enough beach, the wave break is further out and the action’s a little longer,” Avakian said.
The resolution passed last night is just the first step in a process that will continue throughout the spring and into the summer. The process will be discussed in other public meetings.
“The beach to me is the foremost asset that this town has,” Fernicola said. “Most people who live in this town or come from other towns, it’s the primary attraction. There’s no doubt there’ll be more public meetings to discuss this without question.”
Local residents and frequent beach visitors were nervous about the project.
“It’s such a quick fix, to try and throw sand up on the beach. For a season or two residents and beachgoers are happy, but Mother Nature’s gonna do what Mother Nature’s gonna do,” said Colin Archer of Ocean Township.
“Everyone here feels the beach in Loch Arbour is so unique and special,” said Peter Siegel of Asbury Park. “It’s one of the top five breaks in the state, if not top two or three. It’s incredible what goes on down there, to put anything that would change that would have a massive economic and social impact on the town and community.”
John Weber of the Surfrider Foundation asked the commissioners what “borrow areas,” or sources of the added sand, the town would be using. Mismatches between the sand already on the beach and sand added from offshore locations can lead to dangerous shifts of sand, which in 2008 led to Senator Frank Lautenberg calling for an investigation in the number of swimmers who’d broken their necks on steep walls of sand that had formed under the water, Weber said.
The DEP and Army Corps have not responded to requests for more information on borrow areas, Peter Avakian said.
Bill Daugherty of Ocean asked if adding dunes had been considered, adding that dunes protected Bradley Beach from most damage.
“A dune system is part of what we’re considering, but the dune system would take up 50 percent of our beach and make that sitting area crowded,” Commissioner Alfred Cheswick said. “If we do beach replenishment, it would would compensate for the area the dunes take up. It all comes down to real estate with the area we have to work with.”
“We don’t view [beach replenishment and dune construction] as mutually exclusive, we think of them in synergy to increase protection,” Fernicola said.
Not all attendees were critical of the replenishment idea. Former Allenhurst Commissioner Robert Fernicola said that he was against beach replenishment when it was discussed in Allenhurst and Loch Arbour in the 1990s, but has changed his mind on the importance of beach elevation. Town with dunes were not necessarily better off after Sandy, Fernicola said. It was areas that had lakes and low elevation that were hit the hardest, and in areas that had low elevation and dunes, the dunes were washed into the streets.
“I hate to say it, but Loch Arbour needs the big beach protection,” Robert Fernicola said. “I’m not a fan of the beach replenishment project. It’s like pouring dollar bills out into the ocean. But we have to do something, and I don’t know that dunes without a large beach is really going to do anything.”
Former Loch Arbour Mayor Bill Rosenblatt warned that being unable to work together with the Army Corps of Engineers and the state was what stopped beach replenishment in Loch Arbour in the 1990s.
“The idea that beach replenishment is going to work is still up for grabs,” Rosenblatt said. “It’s not simply one thing. And I would hate to see irreparable damage done by accepting once again that these people who weren’t right the first time to come back and not be right again simply because it’s free this time.”
Rosenblatt encouraged the commissioners to seek the proper input before turning to beach replenishment.
“If you don’t have input, we’ll be like Monmouth Beach. There’ll be more sand, but it’ll be more sand on Euclid Avenue,” he said.
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[Pictured above, from left: Fernicola, Cheswick and Commissioner Denis D’Angelo at a prior meeting.]
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