Month: December 2018

Categories
aquaculture government Money Island sustainability

State of New Jersey vs. Tony Novak, et. al.

Baysave was named as a defendant along with its controller Tony Novak in a lawsuit filed May 4, 2018 by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. The lawsuit focuses on properties acquired for stabilization and sustainable aquaculture redevelopment after Superstorm Sandy under a proposed gift/sale to the state. The State does not allege that Baysave, Novak or our associates did anything wrong, but rather that we are the current titleholders of the distressed properties after the state decided that it did not want the properties. The stabilization, recovery,  transfer, sustainability planning and compliance phases are taking much longer than expected and the issues are proving more complex than anyone had hoped.

The underlying issue is that the entire Money Island Marina campus

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, and in fact most of the small rural port community of Money Island, was built more than a half century ago without building permits, water well or septic system permits, land surveys, tideland leases, etc. What little documentation that may have existed based or is referenced in other documents now appears to be missing from the local government and county offices.

Before Superstorm Sandy, we agreed with the state on a solution to these issues. We assumed these properties would be acquired by the state like other local working waterfronts and that would transfer these issues to the state to deal with (as happened with other local marinas like neighboring Fortescue). Our verbal and written communications indicated that the state would acquire these properties at our cost and lease them back to local watermen just like Fortescue State Marina. But in the years since Sandy, none of this has actually happened. The state switched from being a cooperative partner with Baysave in our restoration efforts to being an unreasonable adversary. We don’t know why. We suspect the action is not taken in good faith.

The lawsuit comes down to this: the government has declined at least 15 permit applications, license applications or pre-application inquiries since Sandy and is now suing us because those same permits are not issued.  It is, in our opinion, unconscionable for the state to be both the denier of permits based on false assumptions and simultaneously bring charges for failure to have permits that should have been addressed decades ago.

Most significant in this matter is the observation that the NJDEP abandoned its normal problem-solving mechanisms (pre-permit planning meetings

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, application review and comment and alternate dispute resolution) to opt for decline of applications and direct to lawsuit with no attempt at resolution. One NJDEP program director said that this was the first time in her career that she saw this pattern of action by her department and so she did not know what to advise.

Public officials like State Senator Van Drew wrote letters on our behalf to urge the state to act reasonably to communicate and negotiate a solution. Public support and political endorsements have had minimal impact.

We are asking the State to the legal prosecution of this case to allow time for consideration of the issues in dispute. We are asking the Governor’s office to force the NJDEP to discuss the errand assumptions underlying their complaints and discuss ways to resolve the problems that does not include suing the people trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Here are the legal documents:

Categories
sustainability

Serving a cash-based community

One of the challenges facing the local bayshore community is the lack of electronic banking. There are no bank branches or full service ATMs in our township. Banking typically requires a 25 minute ride into a neighboring larger town. We have no high speed Internet and cellular connections are not always reliable.

The effect is that much of the local economy is based on cash. That brings additional challenges and expenses. Businesses that try to move to electronic transactions face challenges and may alienate parts of the customer base

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, especially lower income people. CBS News covered this topic today in an article bringing fresh insight into the issue.

We recognize this issue as just one more challenge facing the businesses in our region. There is no easy answer.

Categories
government Money Island sustainability

Government relations priorities for 2019

Blue Claw Crab Industry

  • The fishery is healthy. Crabs have the biological capacity rebound quickly after our worst environmental challenges.
  • Blue crabs are the only commercial species in New Jersey expected to benefit from the long-term effects of climate change.
  • We have a great local crab research resource from Rider University.
  • Expansion of infrastructure markets and local processing is planned
  • A $15,000 grant in 2018 from New Jersey Community Capital allows for development of an independent crabbers cooperative facility

Bottleneck: Of the 312 commercial crab licenses issued in New Jersey, far less than half are utilized. The state restricts transfer of idle licenses except within a family. Senator Van Drew believed this would change years ago but this remains the #1 artificial restraint on the industry. Without licenses

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, growth in the industry is stalled.

What we are asking: Increased pressure by the legislature on NJDEP to implement the license transfer policy previously approved to allow for use of idle commercial crab licenses.

Oyster Industry

  • The Nantuxent Creek at Money Island is identified as the #1 preferred choice for a productive type of oyster aquaculture called “FLUPSY” (floating upweller system) that acts as a nursery. This technology has the potential to grow the industry by more than tenfold, as it has in the Chesapeake Bay.
  • Several oyster companies are considering expansion of aquaculture at Money Island New Jersey. The NJDEP blocked initial efforts to obtain infrastructure permitting in 2017 and now Attorney General obtained a court order to shut down half of the docks.
  • Approval of dredging plans for the Nantuxent Creek was recently announced.

Bottleneck: In 2017 NJDEP discouraged a major seafood company from submitting a permit application, saying that such redevelopment permit would not be issued based on lack of permits at other nearby sites.

What we are asking: State government to redevelop on a site-by-site basis one step at a time rather than a whole community basis.

 

Recreational and educational use

Bottleneck: A lack of funding for permitting applications has caused a delay. The Attorney General recently obtained a court order to close the facility to the community to public use until permitting is applied for.

What we are asking: A commitment by government to allow more time for funding of dock permit applications and to support Baysave in forming a public/private partnership for multi-use facilities at Money Island.

Categories
Money Island New Jersey sustainability

What’s ahead at Money Island?

We are excited about the future of Money Island, New Jersey as a host site for a wide range of bayshore users. In the fall of 2018 the Money Island Marina was closed for permitting and redevelopment and all but two of the houses on the eastern side of the island are being removed. By spring 2019 an expanded natural area will take their place. We expect to host new research projects and are planning for expansion of new private uses for 2019 that do not require government permitting. Government is considering the addition of a “welcome center” at the site of the marina but no deal has been reached yet. Meanwhile Baysave will continue many of membership-based activities that are consistent with the new planned uses of Money Island. We anticipate a decline in recreational fishing but an increase in overall tourism and an increase in other types of recreational boating activities.

Over the next few years most of the houses on the western side of the island will be removed while commercial operations expand in the creek. Money Island will dramatically grow in both financial importance to regional aquaculture.

Since 1990 we’ve lost about half of our dry ground at Money Island due to rising water and sinking land. We’ve taken dramatic action to address it: installation of a 440 foot seawall, redevelopment of stronger commercial boat docks, raising of the roadway and parking areas, rebuilding key infrastructure. Now we must embrace the inevitable future of higher waters. Future community planning will be water-based rather than land-based. Wet flood proof facilities and mobile infrastructure are already the standard for new projects here. That shift in reality will require massive change in thinking that will pose challenges to traditional systems and government.

Money Island NJ

Recreational boating activities have been in decline here for many years. Over the past eight years he marina was partly supported by Baysave’s charitable donations (mostly from me and my family) until the state ordered the facility closed in 2018. Because of slow progress on required engineering and permits. We have previously proposed converting to a state marina like Fortescue State Marina. That would allow us to pay an annual lease fee that is based on revenue rather than the current unworkable charges for permitting

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, property taxes and tidelands lease fees that are much larger than the marina’s maximum possible revenue. Another proposal is to operate like Spring Garden Marina that replaced its floating docks with a boat lift. Both of those options have been proposed as long term solutions for the marina but first we need to resolve current community planning issues.

Commercial aquaculture is at the beginning of a boom growth phase. We could easily see Delaware Bay production grow by ten-fold or twenty-fold simply by adopting simple technology widely used in the Chesapeake Bay. We don’t want to give the impression that Money Island is “going away”. It will certainly be different, but will remain an important part of this region’s culture and economy.

Baysave remains committed to serving a wide range of user groups ranging from sightseers, bird watchers, dog walkers, recreational fishing, commercial netters, oyster harvesters, crabbers, recreational boaters, research groups, and many more. We recognize the challenge in keeping everyone happy and welcome your input into our future.

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Categories
Delaware Bay Money Island New Jersey sustainability sustainable redevelopment

Baysave announces 2019 environmental priorities: permitting and plastics

At its December 2018 meeting, the Board of Directors of Baysave Association resolved to take additional steps toward cleanup and legalization of previously abandoned properties at the New Jersey bayshore. The resolutions include an approach to federal and state government permitting and an approach to addressing plastics in local waters. These two programs – permitting and plastics – will be the focus of Baysave’s 2019 environmental agenda.

A strategy to approach permitting on a site-by-site basis was approved to allow us to partner with, sell, or gift land to others who may have similarly aligned environmental and sustainable community redevelopment interests. It is unclear whether the NJDEP and NJ Attorney General will agree to this plan since in the past the department has taken an unusual “whole community” approach at one cleanup location and has declined pre-permit requests for addressing individual site cleanup issues. The Controller is authorized to lobby local and state government to support this more practical cleanup approach.

A plan was approved to remove waste plastics that are already in our waters as well as to reduce overall future reliance on plastics in the future. This past year the NJ Fish and Wildlife bureau and some Baysave members noticed a problem with plastic shell bags used in oyster reef restoration.  We will discontinue the use of these bags on our sites and advocate for their replacement in other sites. The board resolved to commit funds and volunteer labor to remove Styrofoam floats from the water and replace the Styrofoam with more sustainable materials. This program will need additional funding. The Board authorized its Controller to seek additional grant funding for this project.

Baysave renewed its commitment to run its multi-user facilities at Money Island New Jersey provided that funding is available through future grants. The former Money Island Marina community is being converted to a nature preserve through combined action of the NJDEP Blue Acres Program and the NJ Attorney General. Public access will continue to be based on membership

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, however support for boating and docking activities is discontinued until and unless allowed by law.

For more information

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, contact Tony Novak, Controller, at tnovak@baysave.org.