{"id":18667,"date":"2026-06-17T14:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=18667"},"modified":"2026-06-17T14:12:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:12:57","slug":"seastreak-ferry-service-to-point-pleasant-beach-nixed-after-council-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2026\/06\/seastreak-ferry-service-to-point-pleasant-beach-nixed-after-council-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Seastreak Ferry Service to Point Pleasant Beach Nixed After Council Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Seastreak ferry arrives in Point Pleasant Beach for the first time, June 4, 2026. (Credit: Seastreak)<\/p><\/div>\n

A raucous borough council meeting in Point Pleasant Beach Tuesday night led to a vote that ultimately caused Seastreak to cancel plans for a ferry service between the Shore and New York City.<\/p>\n

The meeting, which spanned more than four hours, included heated discussions between those in favor of the service \u2013 which would have run from Manhattan\u2019s finance district to a dock on Inlet Drive near the U.S. Coast Guard station \u2013 that had garnered significant media attention when it was announced last month. In a 3-2 vote, the council voted down an ordinance that would have created a licensing framework for ferry services and enabled Seastreak to operate trips on nine summer weekends this year as part of a pilot program. Some residents said they opposed the service because it could bring extra traffic to Inlet Drive, however others lambasted the service because they objected to an influx of additional tourists in the resort community.<\/p>\n

In response, Seastreak issued a statement Wednesday saying it would abandon its plans for a route to Point Pleasant Beach, which was set to begin this Friday, June 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no free trial \u2013 there\u2019s no trial period,\u201d said Councilman John Dixon, who opposed the ordinance. \u201cIf you want to have a ferry in this town, you have to follow the process and follow the rules, end of story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Seastreak ferry arrives in Point Pleasant Beach for the first time, June 4, 2026. (Credit: Seastreak)<\/p><\/div>\n

Before even voting on the ordinance, which was also subject to a public hearing, the governing body \u2013 in the same 3-2 configuration \u2013 voted to remove the portion that would allow for a trial period and impose on Seastreak the obligation to go before the borough\u2019s zoning board, which normally includes months of preparation and the hiring of attorneys, engineers, consults and other experts. That move, in and of itself, largely precluded the operation of the ferry in the immediate future. After this change, discussion shifted to the licensing system in general, and the heated discussion began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we\u2019re so excited about dumping 400 or 500 extra people here on the busiest weekends of the year when we already have too many people in this town,\u201d said resident Dan Friendly. \u201cWhat is the town getting out of it? Five-hundred more people when there are already too many people here? They\u2019re not paying parking fees, so we\u2019re not getting parking revenue from them, the motels are already 100 percent full so you\u2019re not getting any hotel tax revenue, so what are we getting out of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Doug Vitale signaled support for the service, which has garnered significant positive media attention in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 500 people come, that\u2019s great for the town, but I don\u2019t even think we\u2019re going to get that,\u201d he said, brushing away concerns of traffic jams on Inlet Drive \u2013 a one-way road that snakes around the block south of Manasquan Inlet.<\/p>\n

Vitale said an initial plan called for police to direct traffic for the short amount of time the ferry would be dropping off or boarding, and rideshare vehicles could pick up passengers at the Little Silver Lake parking lot. He said the lack of vehicles for people coming into town would benefit traffic rather than have a deleterious affect on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey liked the idea because we\u2019re bringing in people without cars, especially an upwardly-mobile young professional demographic,\u201d said Councilwoman Kitty Stillufsen, referencing the view of firefighters in town with whom she spoke.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Seastreak ferry arrives in Point Pleasant Beach for the first time, June 4, 2026. (Credit: Seastreak)<\/p><\/div>\n

Some residents, however, vehemently disagreed, raising concerns that ranged from the practical to the bizarre. Several residents noted concerns of drivers violating the one-way direction of traffic on Inlet Drive \u2013 a long-running issue \u2013 and bottlenecks near Captain Bill\u2019s, which is located near the goose-neck turn in Inlet Drive located after the road runs along the waterway but before it reaches the Red\u2019s Lobster Dock restaurant and the Coast Guard station. Others feared the fact that the ferry could, in theory, carry 500 passengers each way since it has the physical capacity to do so, however it was estimated that about 100 passengers would actually be on board the service, which was to unload and department in a 15-minute window. Another resident mused that alcohol sales on the ferry could lead some passengers to trip when departing the vessel.<\/p>\n

Not all residents who spoke were against the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dock,\u201d said Darryl Monticello. \u201cWhat do docks do? It lets people on and lets people off \u2013 that\u2019s a dock.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the borough already has deep-sea fishing boats that carry hundreds of passengers to fishing grounds each day, as well as water taxis that bring tourists to bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have boats coming into our ports constantly letting people on and off,\u201d he said. \u201cWe go from 5,000 people to 100,000 people [in town during the summer]. You think 100 people is going to make a difference? Because you don\u2019t like it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not a permitted use to allow people to go on and off a dock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials, however, stuck to their belief that because the borough code is currently silent on ferry services, they are \u2013 by default \u2013 not permitted anywhere in town and should seek formal hearing before the planning or zoning boards, as well as undergo analysis by borough professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous,\u201d said Dixon, lamenting the fact that a special council meeting on the ferry ordinance cost taxpayers $2,370 to pay the hourly rates of professionals. \u201cThis is supposed to go for a use variance \u2013 you\u2019re bypassing that. If you allow the ferry to be a use in that zone \u2013 and I\u2019m not saying it shouldn\u2019t be in the future \u2013 but if you bypass that now and jump ahead \u2026 you\u2019re cutting out a whole section of our safety zone to make sure it\u2019s on the up-and-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just open up a business any way you want to do it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Monticello had a different take: \u201cThe only people who are going to make out on this are the professionals,\u201d he said, in reference to the small army of attorneys, engineers, architects, traffic consults and marine industry consultants who would be hired to provide testimony on behalf of the ferry operator at a zoning board hearing.<\/p>\n

The argument didn\u2019t sway Councilman Andy Cortes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying the boat\u2019s a bad idea, they just have to go through a process,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not defined in our ordinance, it\u2019s nor permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortes pushed back on claims by some that Point Pleasant Beach was a \u201ctourist community,\u201d stating, \u201cWe are a residential community that\u2019s a tourist destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, council members Dixon, Cortes and Stillufsen represented the three votes which turned down the licensing ordinance and pilot program, a move that Vitale, the mayor, labeled \u201csquandering an opportunity.\u201d Ramos and Councilwoman Caryn Burns voted in favor of the ordinance; the mayor does not get a vote under Point Pleasant Beach\u2019s system of government.<\/p>\n

While the legal argument for whether Seastreak would actually require permission from the local municipal government to utilize a private dock in town to embark and disembark passengers was unclear, the company said in a statement issued Wednesday that it would simply not move forward with the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get to this point after the level of engagement we\u2019ve had is extremely frustrating and disappointing\u201d said company president James D. Barker. \u201cWe were confident that we had a path to responsibly test this service. The whole purpose of the pilot was to determine whether service was logistically and economically viable before making larger investments and commitments. Without the ability to test the concept on a limited basis as we proposed, it becomes very difficult to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A raucous borough council meeting in Point Pleasant Beach Tuesday night led to a vote that ultimately caused Seastreak to cancel plans for a ferry service between the Shore and New York City. The meeting, which spanned more than four hours, included heated discussions between those in favor of the service \u2013 which would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18626,"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":[16,15],"tags":[1959,3038,1096,3035,2784,376,3034],"class_list":["post-18667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boating-fishing","category-ocean-county","tag-featured","tag-ferry-service","tag-manasquan-inlet","tag-manhattan","tag-newsbreak","tag-point-pleasant-beach","tag-seastreak-ferry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MyuSt.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4R5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667","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=18667"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18673,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18667\/revisions\/18673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}