Property Rights and Public Beach Access on The Jersey Shore

Property Rights, Beach Replenishment and Beach Access on The Jersey Shore


Beach Erosion


Beach replenishment, beach access and private beach ownership has long been a contentious issue along The Jersey Shore. Property owners have maintained that they have a right to own the beach in front of their homes or businesses while advocacy groups have argued that the beach is for everyone.

The issue is closer to being resolved after a recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on the estate of a business owner whose lawyers argued that the estate owned the land (not the city) even if the state or federal government paid for a beach replenishment project which actually increased the size of the beach (land) in question.

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower-court ruling that a beachfront-property owner is not entitled to compensation for land created by a publicly funded beach-replenishment project. One might ask; how would a ruling on one piece of property located on small stretch of beachfront impact the rest of The Jersey Shore? Well the court ruling is significant to the future of beach access and sand replenishment along The Jersey Shore.

The court cited the legal principle that the state holds "ownership, dominion, and sovereignty" over tide-flowed lands "in trust for the people," and traces its origins to Roman jurisprudence. The public-trust doctrine was common law in England, where the king held title to tide-flowed lands. After the American Revolution, title to those lands in New Jersey passed from the king to the state. The state, therefore, owns all lands that are flowed by the tide up to the mean high-water line or mark.

Environmental and beach-access advocacy groups had closely followed the case as this decision has far-reaching effects on the entire 127 miles of The Jersey Shore with regard to future beach replenishment and access.

This decision makes it clear that the public owns the land on which beach-replenishment projects are done.

Without the ruling, there would continue to be questions about precisely who owns the land created and maintained by government-sponsored beach-replenishment projects.

The Supreme Court referenced the public-trust doctrine, and that is the premise of what needs to guide a lot of decisions that are made and will be made in the state with regard to beach access.

Knowing about accretion and littoral rights is fundamental knowledge for REALTOR's, but this is a perfect example of why everyone needs to hire a real estate attorney.

Karl Hess, Your Agent on the Jersey Shore