WILDWOOD — Federal and state authorities expect an island-wide beach project that has been in the works for more than a decade to finally begin construction in 2025, with partnership agreements signed with four communities included in the project area.
But that does not mean everyone is happy.
Officials in Wildwood Crest and Wildwood say the latest plans will take too big a bite out of their beaches for the benefit of North Wildwood.
Wildwood Crest Mayor Don Cabrera said the Crest has sent a letter formally opposing the plans, which are a joint project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Wildwood Crest will remain in opposition unless there are significant changes to the proposal, he said. But Cabrera said he remains willing to keep talking.
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“They did say that if we didn’t want the project, to just let them know,†Cabrera said Tuesday.
Much of the local discussion about the project in recent years centered on plans to create a wide dune system the length of the island, which some property owners and local officials had argued would block views and change the local community in the name of shore protection.
Now, the primary objection relates to the proposed source of the sand to rebuild the badly eroded North Wildwood beaches: the exceptionally wide beaches of Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.
At a Monday meeting of the Wildwood Board of Commissioners, Mayor Ernie Troiano criticized the proposal, after a member of the public suggested it could hurt Wildwood.
“Their project will be devastating to our beaches if it goes through,†Brian Schwartz told the commissioners. “This project will change the landscape of this town forever, negatively.â€
From its inception, the proposal has been to take sand from the beaches farther south on Five Mile Beach, the island that includes the Wildwoods and the Diamond Beach section of Lower Township, and use it to rebuild the beaches at the north end of the island.
While erosion is a persistent problem on New Jersey’s barrier islands, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest have exceptionally wide beaches. A public presentation from 2014 described using back passing to gather sand from beaches in Lower Township, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest to build both the dune and the North Wildwood beaches.
Back passing involves taking sand from the tidal zone, removing it when the tide is out, which will allow some sand to be returned by the incoming tide.
But in separate interviews, both Cabrera and Troiano said they did not have a clear picture of just how much sand would be taken until a recent presentation from state and federal officials took place in Wildwood.
The most recent plan would reduce the width of the beach from Cresse Avenue to the Wildwoods Convention Center by about 900 feet, Troiano said, adding, “They said that’s the worst-case scenario.â€
He said the most recent plan, presented to local officials at a meeting in Wildwood before Christmas, was dramatically different from what the city has seen before. Troiano said North Wildwood will not be happy, but he has to do what is best for Wildwood and for his city’s economy.
There was no immediate response from North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello to a request for comment Tuesday.
Vincent Grassi, a DEP press officer, said each impacted town gave support to the project at a December meeting. In an email Jan. 2, he said the meeting Dec. 16 meeting was called to update towns on the plans for the work and the status of the process of acquiring easements from property owners.
He said more discussion will take place in the New Year.
"At the meeting, each municipality shared their support for the Project. Some concerns were raised, including post construction beach width and questions related to required sand quantities," Grassi said. "In January, the USACE and the DEP will be holding individual coordination meetings with each municipality to discuss these and other concerns and the full project implementation as we move towards bidding and construction slated for spring of 2026."
He directed further questions about the project plans to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Attempts to speak with someone from the Army Corps were unsuccessful.Â
The potential impact of the project has been a concern for Wildwood all along, with city officials saying they could not support a proposal that would not allow large-scale events on the beach.
For instance, the Barefoot Country Music Fest takes place on the beach and draws thousands to town. The June 2025 lineup includes stars like Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, and plans are for the festival to return for years to come.
According to Troiano, the meeting on beach plans took place the same day as a meeting with DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and Cape May County mayors on proposed new flood rules, which local officials argue could severely impact the local economy.
On Monday, Troiano said the state could not say it needs to plan for the worst in terms of flood rules, meant to address significant sea level rise by the end of the century, and not expect the worst case scenario when it comes to Wildwood’s beaches.
He cited significant storms like Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and Winter Storm Jonas in 2016 that included tides that overwhelmed the city’s wide beaches.
In a previously released statement, LaTourette indicated that everything was ready for the project to get underway in 2025.
“As of 2023, the towns of North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Lower Township had all signed aid agreements to enable our partnership to proceed,†LaTourette continued. “Throughout 2024, federal, state, and local government engineers collaborated on a detailed project design that is now near complete. NJDEP is grateful for the partnership of all involved, including at our most recent and productive Mayors meeting. In 2025, NJDEP expects that the shore protection project design will be completed and that property easements necessary for construction in all four towns will be secured. These steps will make way for the shore protection project to begin construction in 2026.â€
LaTourette emphasized the importance of the shore protection project, which take place regularly in other beach communities, but not in the Wildwoods.
“All of New Jersey’s Atlantic Ocean beachfront is now protected by an engineered beach and dune system, except Five Mile Island, the barrier island that is home to the Wildwoods,†LaTourette said. “The Wildwoods need and deserve the same protection, especially as coastal storms and erosional forces become more intense, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) have committed to design, construct, and fund the barrier island-wide project that would run between Hereford and Cape May Inlets.â€
But in Cape May, Ocean City, Sea Isle City and other communities, the beach projects draw sand from nearby inlets, which are pumped onto beaches.
In 2024, Avalon celebrated a change in federal law that would allow sand to be pumped from Hereford Inlet, between Stone Harbor and North Wildwood, for beach projects in Avalon and Stone Harbor. In previous interviews, North Wildwood’s Rosenello was not certain whether the change would also allow inlet sand to be added to beaches in his town.
Wildwood Crest’s Cabrera said most of his community’s objections would evaporate if the sand was taken from the inlet, although there remain concerns about the dune proposal as well.
The original cost estimate on the project was $21.8 million, but that was from 10 years ago. Even then, the total cost estimated over the long term was close to $60 million.
North Wildwood once had an exceptionally wide beach, much like its neighbors, but over about 20 years, that sand has been disappearing. For years, North Wildwood rebuilt its own beach, trucking sand in from farther south on the barrier island until erosion reached a point that there was no route to take to deliver the sand.
The city and the DEP also resolved long-running legal disputes over shore protection in December.
Things looked bad for the summer of 2024, with little beach in a wide area of the town at high tide and water lapping sections of the seawall. Gov. Phil Murphy helped push through an emergency beach project in the spring, through the state Department of Transportation rather than the DEP. Rosenello said the work saved the summer, dredging sand from offshore and adding it to the badly eroded beaches.
A beach project for the Wildwoods has been under consideration since the 1980s, and Rosenello has been calling for a project for years. LaTourette seemed confident that sand could be moving before the end of 2025.
“I don’t know where it’s going to go from here. It’s going to be interesting,†Troiano said, adding he expects more information from the Army Corps and the state. “They’re going to powwow and come back to us. Will they say we don’t have a choice? I don’t know.â€
