By Jordan Asch | Published January 7, 2016 | Posted in Beaches & Coast, Environmental & Natural Resources | Leave a comment
In a much anticipated decision that came down on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey found that the 2012 beach access rules constructed by the Christie Administrative were invalid. The three-judge panel declared the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) was not authorized to promulgate the Read More
Read MoreNew Jersey Makes a Splash by Winning Two Tidelands Cases In Lisowski v. Borough of Avalon (2015), the Superior Court of New Jersey considered two consolidated appeals, Lisowski v. Borough of Avalon and State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection v. Township of Delanco, each challenging the timeliness of the State of New Jersey’s Read More
Read MoreOn August 6, 2015, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided Ross v. Lowitz,Nos. A-101 September Term 2013, 074200. The Court’s opinion sheds some light on the state of New Jersey nuisance and trespass law. Yet it also raises some important questions about what a Plaintiff alleging environmental contamination and seeking tort damages must prove in Read More
Read MoreJudge Hogan has tried and overseen many environmental cases and that fact was evident in the over 80 page decision that he wrote last week upholding the frequently maligned $225 million settlement between the state DEP and the oil giant. While many people argued the state should have gotten more, largely because the state itself Read More
Read MoreWhat does a governing body do when a municipality’s planning board recommends changes to its master plan? Does the council have to adopt the changes to the municipal ordinance? Can the council reject the recommendations? Or can it simply ignore the planning board altogether? On January 16, 2015, the Appellate Division’s opinion in in Myers Read More
Read MoreThe New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division held in Petrozzi v. Ocean City that beach-front property owners are able to recover damages for the failure of a municipality to comply with easement agreements. At the end of the 1980’s, Ocean City initiated a dune restoration program and acquired easements from property owners in order to Read More
Read MoreOn July 8, 2013, at the intersection of environmental and eminent domain law, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued its long-anticipated decision in Borough of Harvey Cedars v. Karan, ____ N.J. ____ (2013). The backdrop of this case was a beach restoration and storm protection project on Long Beach Island funded by federal, state, and Read More
Read MoreOn June 20, 2013, the Christie Administration announced that they have officially adopted rules that simplify the permitting process for certain types of recovery projects relating to Superstorm Sandy. The Administration had implemented some of these rules as an emergency in April 2013, but now they are being formally implemented into the recovery requirements. The Read More
Read MoreThe Christie Administration filed emergency rules to assist in the expedition of Superstorm Sandy-related recovery and rebuilding on March 17, 2013. These rules are meant to cut through unnecessary red tape that is delaying some aspects of New Jersey’s recovery from Sandy for both homes and businesses. The rules also contain portions that will expedite Read More
Read MoreDid Superstorm Sandy make it safe for the State to deride waterfront property owners for refusing to allow the State to erect two-story beach dunes on their waterfront property? The State may think that such extreme protective measures may be more politically palpable because, after living through Sandy and witnessing her destruction, New Jerseyans better Read More
Read More