OCEAN CITY — Although citizens asked the measure be pulled from the agenda Thursday evening, Ocean City Council approved paying for a proposal to design and permit a 7-foot-tall, 10-foot wide, 3,700-foot-long flood berm on a maintenance road in the Southend of the city.
The proposal from ACT Engineers totaling $58,550 is for what it calls the 52nd Street flood resiliency berm that would run along the maintenance road beginning at 51st Street and continuing along 52nd and the back bay adjacent to the berm for the abandoned railroad tracks that run to Crook Horn Creek.
It includes design, permit and bid specifications in support of the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Program Grant being awarded to Ocean City.
During public comment, one citizen questioned building something akin to the controversial raised Crook Horn Creek bike path that was eventually shot down more than a decade ago. Another citizen asked that it be held up for further study, but council approved it along with 27 other resolutions in a consent agenda without any discussion. (Any council member can pull an item from the consent agenda to be discussed separately. None did Thursday evening.)
“You’re saying it’s for flood control,” resident Bill O’Neal said. “That’s BS.”
“You just want to make a bike path down there. You tried to this years ago and it got shot down,” he said, adding he didn’t know if the city had a grant or just “too much money.” He asked to see more information on the project.
In 2008, the city administration at the time proposed creating a bike path along that route to Crook Horn Creek, but was opposed by neighbors concerned about bicycle and pedestrian traffic and others concerned about the environmentally sensitive nature of the area.
The plan became a political football and was eventually dropped after the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) granted only partial approval.
Resident Donna Moore, who has often appeared before council on environmental issues, said the proposal for the Crook Horn Creek path would end at the creek with a viewing area and benches. She said it would be 7 feet above sea level, while the current berm with the railroad tracks is 5 feet above sea level.
The project would occur in four phases and eventually be made ADA-accessible for pedestrians with a material laid on top of the elevated berm, she said, urging council to delay a vote on the ACT proposal to give it more study. Another citizen supported Moore, noting she does considerable research.
In the proposal from ACT Engineers to Ocean City Business Administrator George Savastano, ACT Vice President Eric Rosina wrote that the portal includes analysis of topographic data, storm surge and wave data and would lead up to preparing bid specifications for the project.
The proposal notes that the NJDEP previously confirmed, “for a former project, that work proposed by the city … is exempt from requiring a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) permit. Until the final berm footprint is designed, it is unknown if any disturbance and/or wetlands impacts will occur.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff