Eminent Domain

After years of fighting for Open Space, Ocean City now has to pay $20 Million for a property they could have purchased for $9 Million in 2018.

In a bizarre twist to a five year saga with a vacant lot, the South Jersey Coastal Community of Ocean City has been ordered by a jury to pay $17.86 Million

Now that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is in charge of obtaining the remaining easements necessary for allowing work to begin on the Army Corps of Engineers stalled dune project, Toms River officials are requesting monthly progress reports on every property from Point Pleasant Beach to Barnegat Inlet.

The Minke family wants a judge to throw out Long Beach Township's Eminent Domain Ordinance to prevent public access to the beach through the front yard of their Loveladies home, according to John H. Buonocore Junior, the Morristown attorney representing them.

Toms River beachfront homeowners who oppose access to their land by the Army Corps of Engineers to build protective dunes stand a step closer to losing pieces of their land through the eminent domain process.

Several shore towns are introducing ordinances aimed at taking legal action against holdouts of easement needed to build a protective dune system along the coast.

Deadlines have passed to get signed easements for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach protection project, but the state continues to take a diplomatic approach in getting property owners to cooperate.

Toms River officials are reportedly taking a wait-and-see approach before using eminent domain to gain beach easement rights for the U.S. Army Corps dune replenishment project.