By Tim O’Meilia
After months of discussing setting standards for seawalls, Manalapan town commissioners abruptly decided July 23 to scrap the idea.
“I’ve been getting a lot of pushback from residents on the seawall situation,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. “Enforcing the code would be expensive for the residents.”
Other commissioners agreed and voted 5-0 to drop plans for seawall regulations.
The new regulations would have required that residents’ seawalls more than 2 years old be certified by a coastal engineer as capable of withstanding a Hurricane Andrew-force storm.
Walls built before 2011, including those along the Intracoastal Waterway on Point Manalapan as well as those along the ocean, would have to be re-certified every five years.
“This new ordinance affects not only the ocean but about 200 homes on (the point),” said Commissioner Howard Roder.
The regulations also would have set minimum height limits and rules for thickness, length and depth of seawalls.
The town began considering regulations after more than a dozen seawalls collapsed during storm surge caused by Hurricane Sandy traveling north off the coast in October.
Town officials were concerned that neglected seawalls led to the collapse of neighboring structures, including those that were properly maintained.
The new seawalls built on 15 oceanfront properties since then would not have to be re-certified for 15 years. The town spent $3,500 developing the standards, largely based on the town of Palm Beach’s regulations.
The town oversaw oceanfront seawall maintenance and repair for more than 50 years until 2003, when complaints over $1.8 million in repair cost assessments prompted the town to leave maintenance up to individual seawall owners.
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