Covering The Waterfront

As the 216^th session of the New Jersey State Legislature ended earlier this month, Governor Christie signed a bill explicitly empowering the Department of Environmental Protection to add a condition to relevant permit approvals requiring that developers and municipalities provide public access to onsite waterfronts and adjacent shorelines. The bill was a prompt response to an Appellate Division decision issued in late December invalidating state policies that had been in effect for many decades and codified in DEP regulations since 1980.

The public access amendment is most notable for its substantive significance but it also preserves a wonderful linguistic oddity. The law it amends, enacted in 1914, defines the projects to which it applies as “the construction or alteration of a dock, wharf, pier, bulkhead, bridge, pipeline, cable, or any other similar or dissimilar waterfront development.” Fortunately, more than a hundred years later, a 21^st century New Jersey legislature has ensured that the dissimilar as well as the similar will continue to be covered.

John Weingart

January 22, 2016