{"id":23764,"date":"2024-03-29T04:48:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T08:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=23764"},"modified":"2024-03-29T04:52:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T08:52:19","slug":"beach-tents-canopies-to-be-prohibited-at-brick-beaches-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2024\/03\/beach-tents-canopies-to-be-prohibited-at-brick-beaches-this-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach Tents, Canopies to be Prohibited at Brick Beaches This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A tent\/canopy set up on the beach. (Credit: Michael Coghlan\/ Creative Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n

A lack of room on Brick Township\u2019s beaches as a federal project to replenish sand is held up in the red tape of defense procurement wranglings has led the township council to prohibit tents and canopies on the beach this summer to save space.<\/p>\n

Brick Township operates three public beaches. Beach I and Beach III both have parking lots and are open to swimming, while Beach II is located in between and is mainly utilized by anglers and surfers. A loss of sand over the winter means the beach berm \u2013 the sand in front of the dune on which beachgoers set up their chairs and blankets \u2013 has gotten smaller, worrying officials that the beach may become overcrowded this summer if people spread out large tents and canopies, as has become a popular practice in recent years.<\/p>\n

The township council unanimously approved a one-year prohibition on tents with the hope that the federal project, led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is completed by next summer. It is already about two years overdue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith limited space on the beach, the township\u2019s recreation committee is in favor of this resolution to make sure all beachgoers have the ability to enjoy the beach with less intrusion from canopies and tents,\u201d said Councilman Perry Albanese.<\/p>\n

Several towns have been forced to take measures to manage beaches prior to the 2024 summer season. In Toms River, officials this week approved more than $300,000 in repairs<\/a> to beach entrances that were washed away during the plethora of nor\u2019easters this season, which destroyed dune crossovers, fencing and left \u201ccliffs\u201d of sand carved into the dune line measuring nearly 10-feet tall in some locations.<\/p>\n

Joanne Bergin, the township\u2019s business administrator, said that while Brick does not anticipate trucking in sand or having to repair dune crossovers, the small size of the berm could end up restricting beach access if too many people were to take up too much room on the township\u2019s only two swimming beaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a moving target on a daily basis, how much sand we\u2019ve lost, because it\u2019s a constant ebb and flow,\u201d said Bergin, after being asked by a resident how much sand was lost this winter. \u201cBut the replenishment is not here to give us the beach we need to [fit] these canopies and tents.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Brick\u2019s prohibition on tents and canopies will be in effect for a single season and was passed by a resolution of the township council, some neighboring communities have placed permanent regulations on the size of tents that can be set up on beaches after it was observed that a few groups of people were taking up large amounts of space on the sand. Lavallette, for example, bans the use of tents and enclosures<\/a> larger than 10-feet by 10-feet as part of its \u201cbeach spreading\u201d ordinance. Seaside Heights has similar regulations, requiring tents to be less than 12-feet by 12-feet<\/a> in area, and mandating tents be placed at least 15-feet apart from one another.<\/p>\n

\"'Double<\/a>

\u2018Double red\u2019 flags fly at Brick Beach III, Sept. 2, 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick\u2019s resolution covers the period from Memorial Day to Labor Day in 2024 and excepts \u201cdevices designed and used to shade infants and small children, also known as \u2018baby tents,\u2019 no larger than 40-inches by 40-inches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beachgoers will also still be able to bring traditional umbrellas on the sand.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can still have their umbrellas,\u201d said Councilwoman Heather deJong. \u201d It\u2019s just that they can\u2019t have the giant canopies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the Army Corps told Shorebeat that it was preparing a new bid solicitation<\/a> after years of bids that were returned either over budget or eventually scrapped after being protested by competing contractors. The federal project \u2013 with Ocean County having committed to funding the \u201clocal share\u201d after the state refused to do so \u2013 has been funded for several years, however no contract has been awarded due to the wranglings within the complex process of defense procurement.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lack of room on Brick Township\u2019s beaches as a federal project to replenish sand is held up in the red tape of defense procurement wranglings has led the township council to prohibit tents and canopies on the beach this summer to save space. Brick Township operates three public beaches. Beach I and Beach III […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[5174,86,5173,465,394,24,4484,182,1970],"class_list":["post-23764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-government","tag-beach-canopy","tag-beach-replenishment","tag-beach-tents","tag-brick-beach-i","tag-brick-beach-iii","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-jersey-shore","tag-u-s-army-corps-of-engineers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/52133353310_a32861c462_k.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6bi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}