{"id":10620,"date":"2022-02-08T04:30:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T09:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=10620"},"modified":"2022-02-08T04:30:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T09:30:43","slug":"lavallette-looks-to-tighten-up-rules-on-commercial-beach-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2022\/02\/lavallette-looks-to-tighten-up-rules-on-commercial-beach-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavallette Looks to Tighten Up Rules on Commercial Beach Use"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lavallette<\/a>

Lavallette Boardwalk (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lavallette officials plan to take a fresh look at commercial services utilizing the borough\u2019s beachfront, as fees remain low \u2013 or are non-existent in some cases \u2013 while the number of entities generating revenue around the beach continue to proliferate.<\/p>\n

The summer of 2021 provided an education as to the types of pop-up businesses that operate on the beach in town without owners obtaining a permit or even notifying the town, officials described. In one case, a photography business took over an entire portion of one street\u2019s beach, charging couples a fee to snap romantic-style photos on the beach that could be shared on social media. Then there were the unannounced weddings which also claimed large swaths of the beachfront, complete with hired professionals, which were never permitted.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the borough\u2019s ordinance regulating facilities uses dictates that a couple getting married at the gazebo on Barnegat Bay pay $250 to use the space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should one bride pay to use the gazebo when another can just take up the whole beach for free?\u201d asked Councilwoman Joanne Filippone.<\/p>\n

The commercialization of the borough\u2019s beach has been a topic that has come up before among both residents and officials who want to make sure the sand stays as open and accessible as possible. But ironically, passing ordinances regulating commercial activity on the beach could brush up against the Public Trust Doctrine, a legal principle that guides waterfront policy. Under this doctrine, which New Jersey has largely adopted as part of its environmental statutes, municipalities do not \u201cown\u201d the beach, but rather hold it in trust for public to use. There are exceptions for deeded private property and New Jersey signature beach badge system, but attorneys frequently advise elected officials in towns with oceanfronts to tread lightly on regulatory measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do come up against the Public Trust Doctrine here as well,\u201d Borough Attorney Phillip G. George said, when fielding a question about the ever-expanding number of yoga classes that are being held on the borough\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n

George said fees can be imposed that focus on \u201cdeferring maintenance costs, maintaining the safety of the littoral dry-sand area and the aquatic area along the bay, and clean-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fee structure right now is that we get a percentage of the profits\u201d of businesses that operate on the borough\u2019s beaches, said Filippone, who will lead a committee that plans to look into the issue more deeply and create a fair system that comports with state policy.<\/p>\n

Mayor Walter LaCicero predicted it is unlikely that changes can be adopted for summer 2022 because applications from vendors have already begun to trickle in. He and council members traded ideas on how to time the adoption of a revised ordinance, ultimately tasking the borough\u2019s ordinance committee with creating a proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought the subject up in September, and it was said that we\u2019d take care of it at the beginning of the year,\u201d said Mark Speaker, a longtime leader with the Lavallette Business Association who is actively involved in volunteer roles in town. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff going on that\u2019s out of control. We have a lot of people taking advantage of the town because they can do it on the cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Lavallette officials plan to take a fresh look at commercial services utilizing the borough\u2019s beachfront, as fees remain low \u2013 or are non-existent in some cases \u2013 while the number of entities generating revenue around the beach continue to proliferate. The summer of 2021 provided an education as to the types of pop-up businesses that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[3,2],"tags":[2052,1959,29],"class_list":["post-10620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lavallette-government","category-lavallette","tag-beach-businesses","tag-featured","tag-lavallette-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lavallette_bordwalk_3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-2Li","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}