Point Pleasant Beach Defends Residents-Only Parking Near Beaches

POINT PLEASANT BEACH – Point Pleasant Beach has announced that parking east of the railroad tracks will essentially be for residents only. And Mayor Paul Kanitra defended the town's actions on Saturday.

State-of-emergency placards have been sent to all homes in Point Pleasant Beach that will grant residents access to parking. The rules are as follows:

• All parking east of the railroad tracks will require an emergency placard to be displayed at all times.
• Fifteen-minute parking will be allowed if customers are patronizing a business for curbside pickup.
• Contractors, landscapers and delivery drivers will be exempted while actively engaged in work.

Kanitra said his town is "literally doing the exact same thing the governor is with Island Beach State Park where he has reduced capacity by 50 percent.

"We’ve reduced the capacity of parking in Point Pleasant Beach by 50 percent," he said. "It’s a half-baked plan for the governor to, in one breath, say we need to enforce social distancing, which would require limits on beach patrons, and then yet not give us the ability to keep from having thousands of unhappy visitors that we can’t fit on the beach and have nowhere else to go. It’s a dangerous recipe for a volatile situation."

Kanitra spoke as the the Maryland Avenue municipal beach was reopened on Friday. Beach Associations will be given the option of also opening, and most have chosen to do so.

Jenkinson's says it won't open until the boardwalk reopens, and the town says that won't happen until early or mid-June.

There will be a daily limit regarding the number of groups allowed on the beach at one time in order to allow sufficient space for proper social distancing, Kanitra said.

Kanitra also said that, for over a month, his town has been asking Gov. Phil Murphy for assistance with being able to get stalled Class 1 and Class 2 officers out of training.

"It’s absurd they expect us to be able to control these huge numbers they’re subjecting us to, yet have done nothing to help us get more resources to handle things appropriately," he said.