With none of the arcades, pizzerias or bars that line the boardwalks of other Jersey Shore towns, there’s little incentive for Spring Lake to draw large crowds of summer tourists for the sake of local businesses.
That said, there are plenty of out-of-towners drawn to Spring Lake’s two uninterrupted miles of beach precisely because they need no more than sun, sand and sea for their summer fun.
And it’s some of those folks who aren’t happy that the 5,500 season beach passes allotted by the borough for 2021 are already sold out, even though word that the $110 season passes had gone on sale in December was limited to a borough newsletter read mainly by residents.
“It seems suspect to me,” said Rachel Juska, 36, of Little Silver, who has been going to the beach in Spring Lake for more than a decade. “The effect of this seems very discriminatory for people who do not live in Spring Lake.”
Borough officials have rejected the concerns, asserting that the reason for the rapid, early sell-out was a reduction in the total number of season passes for sale in light of social distancing requirements intended to combat the coronavirus.
Officials further note that most of the season passes — 52% — were bought by out-of-towners, not residents. And they insist that additional passes may go on sale if coronavirus cases decline as vaccinations increase.
“It’s just too early to tell,” Councilman Robert Drasheff said.
But beach access is a sensitive issue along New Jersey’s prized Atlantic Ocean shoreline, where there’s a long history of accusations, sometimes in court, that individuals and municipalities have violated the ancient Public Trust doctrine and state law based on it that guarantee universal access to the sand and surf.
And the unusually early buy-up of passes caught Juska and others off guard and raised a red flag.
“This year, somebody said to me, ‘Did you hear Spring Lake badges are on sale?’ And I said ‘No.’ And now they’re all sold out,” said Juska, whose own Monmouth County borough north of Spring Lake has no beach.
Local officials noted that residents and out-of-towners alike will still be able to buy daily beach badges — for $10 each, online and available for pickup at the Spring Lake train station — when the beaches open in a little over four months.
But Juska, a part-time network news producer, said she takes her young son and daughter to the beach two to three times a week in summer, and having to buy a badge for herself (kids under 12 get on the beach free in Spring lake) would be significantly more expensive than the cost of a season pass.
Juska noted that Spring Lake residents have the option of renting seasonal beach lockers that include five season passes. The lockers can also be rented by non-residents, but only if they are sponsored by a resident.
Any effort to exclude out-of-towners from a municipal beach in New Jersey in favor of residents which would defy not only court precedents, but also an executive order by Gov. Phil Murphy last May. The order allowed beaches to open during the pandemic with the stipulation that municipalities could not use social distancing or capacity restrictions to keep non-residents, low-income people or others off their beaches.
Drasheff insisted that Spring Lake was “absolutely not” trying to keep non-residents off its beaches. He noted that non-residents can sign up for the borough newsletter that had announced the sale of season passes.
“The newsletter is not restricted to residents, and anyone can go to our website and subscribe,” he said. “And I would think that anyone who’s been going to our beaches for a number of years would know that.”
John Webber, a Bradley Beach borough councilman who is also the Mid-Atlantic regional manager for the Surfrider Foundation, a beach access advocacy group, said municipalities had a dual obligation to keep their beaches safe and accessible.
Webber said Bradley Beach had also limited season pass sales in order to insure that beaches would be less crowded while still permitting some access via daily badges.
But Webber said he was surprised to hear that Spring Lake had allotted just 5,500 season passes for its two miles of beach, when Bradley Beach had 7,500 season passes for a total beach front just under half the length of Spring Lake’s.
“It would be very interesting to me if Spring Lake has come up with a number and it’s a lot fewer people than are allowed on neighboring beaches,” said Webber, who suggested taking beach access out of the hands of local officials, whose goals may conflict with those of their neighbors.
“Let’s explore a statewide beach pass,” Webber said. “Let’s explore a regional one.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com.
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