Beach town battles over sand, erosion

The borough trucked in 3,000 cubic yards of sand on an emergency basis to protect the homes there during the first week of July — but two-thirds of it has already washed away. Erosion has created steep cliffs in some spots that the locals have dubbed "Harvey Cedars Bluffs."

"This is a Band-Aid, and a very expensive one at that," Oldham said of the emergency truckloads of sand.

The federal government would pay 65 percent of the cost of the estimated $13 million project. The state would pay 25 percent, with the remainder coming from the municipality and Ocean County. Oldham said Harvey Cedars' share was calculated three years ago at about $500,000 — or, just under $6,100 per homeowner — but that number has surely risen since then, he said.

At a contentious public hearing recently, residents railed against the homeowners who still refuse to sign the easements, which typically involve from 10 to 50 feet of beach.

"It's not fair for a handful of people to jeopardize everyone else's property in the borough," said Debbie Austin, a 58-year Harvey Cedars resident.

Ken Porro, a lawyer for two oceanfront property owners in Harvey Cedars, said his clients would sign easements if the dunes could be made slightly lower, and they were assured they would be compensated for their lost property.

"When you look at oceanfront property, there are three things any property owner is interested in," he said. "Number one and the most important is the view of the ocean. Number two is access to the ocean, and number three is the breeze, which is an important factor. A lot of people don't like to use their air conditioning. They say the evening breeze off the ocean is something special."

Putting dunes as tall as 29 feet that are 50 feet wide in behind homes would reduce property values by 40 percent, Porro said.

"If you have a million-dollar property, it's now worth $600,000," he said.

But Wendy Mae Chambers, a resident of Harvey Cedars and New Orleans, broke down in tears as she said a May nor'easter that chewed up so much of Harvey Cedars' beach foreshadowed what could happen to residents.

"A storm is going to come and there's not going to be any sand in front of their homes, and they're going to die like a drowned rat," she said. "That May 10th storm was a gift; please heed the warning."

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