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At the risk of sounding "morbid" now might just be the time to have New Jersey expand access to New Jersey beaches.
As many in this state realize, the VAST MAJORITY of beaches in New Jersey have no public access, due to the need to cross private land to gain access to the beach.
For generations, the public has been perfectly fine to pay for beach replenishment, or to pay for a "sea wall", but goodness keep those unclean people off MY beach.
With the passing of Hurricane Sandy, we might be able to end decades of this thinking.
Now is the time for the New Jersey legislature to determine who is allowed to rebuild along the beach, on what properties, and what access to be required.
I had thought about posting a thread asking the question about should the barrier islands be rebuilt and if so, how? There were a lot of organizations, not the last of which were the NJ Surfriders (organization dedicated to beach preservation and conservancy) that issued statements about how now is the time to start thinking about how to PROPERLY build on the beaches inlight of what may very well be more common storms like Sandy.
It's not just about beach access, but also about allowing the barrier islands to do their job and protect the rest of the coast. There were even some reports that beach replenishment efforts can't be done forever due to a lack of the proper sand for doing it, not even mentioning the expense. There is obviously a need to discuss how these towns are going to be redeveloped, from expanding seawalls, breaks, dunes and jetties to where and how to build homes and businesses.
To look at the silver lining here, the storm does give us the opportunity to preserve and re-imagine our beaches taking into account the environment, future storm risk and the needs of the businesses and people that rely on the shore. Just going back and rebuilding everything as it was would be foolish.
The property is still owned by people even though there might not be a home on it any longer.
I would suggest MUCH tougher building codes. No more wood framed houses with "regular" roofs. Require codes like Florida has for any new construction/reconstruction within 10 miles of the coast.
Beach access doesn't concern me. It will spark endless lawsuits, and in the end isn't going to wind up making the beaches any more accessible than they currently are. Towns will just ban non-resident parking on the street and only have public parking where they want it (if at all), and still, no one will be able to get to the beaches, as happens in every other part of the country I've been to.
How rebuilding is done, does concern me. And having looked over the images, the answers are obvious. There needs to be a bigger buffer of vegetation and dunes between homes and the water. In many towns, I feel the answer is to rip out the front row of houses and replace it with a bigger buffer zone.
Beach access doesn't concern me. It will spark endless lawsuits, and in the end isn't going to wind up making the beaches any more accessible than they currently are. Towns will just ban non-resident parking on the street and only have public parking where they want it (if at all), and still, no one will be able to get to the beaches, as happens in every other part of the country I've been to.
How rebuilding is done, does concern me. And having looked over the images, the answers are obvious. There needs to be a bigger buffer of vegetation and dunes between homes and the water. In many towns, I feel the answer is to rip out the front row of houses and replace it with a bigger buffer zone.
Tougher building codes.
I agree with this. Years and years ago, there were no houses as close to the water as they are now (at least here in OC) but they kept trying to squeeze more and more money out of a limited area. I especially agree about the dunes. If you go to Brigantine, there is a huge expanse of dunes and vegetation between the beach and houses in many parts. Here, they didn't even have dunes in the south end until about 15-20 years ago, and they are quite small. I remember when they first started trying to create the dunes down there, property owners, especially first floor (most homes here are duplexes, you buy the first floor or second floor) were up in arms because they felt their view was going to be ruined. One guy actually rented a little bulldozer and took the dune down in front of his house!
let the island be buffers and build crap on the mainland, no matter how far back on the island you build one day its gonna be beachfront unless you let nature take care of her own island.
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