## Facts

- Avon-by-the-Sea, an oceanfront municipality, owned and maintained a public beach and boardwalk area used heavily by summer visitors.
- Avon charged user fees for beach access under state enabling statutes.
- Avon adopted an amendatory ordinance that (1) barred nonresidents from purchasing season beach badges and (2) charged nonresidents higher daily beach fees than residents.
- Neptune City and two of its residents who used Avon’s beach challenged the ordinance as unlawful discrimination, asserting that beach and tidal lands are held for the public.
- Avon defended the resident preference as a fiscal measure, arguing residents bore beach-related costs through local property taxes.

## Issues

1. Whether a municipality operating a public bathing beach may charge nonresidents higher access fees than residents and deny nonresidents season badges.
2. Whether the public trust doctrine requires equal access terms for the ocean and municipally owned upland sand dedicated to public beach use.
3. Whether statutes authorizing beach fees permit resident-based discrimination in pricing or access.

## Decision

- The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the trial court and remanded.
- The court held Avon’s ordinance invalid because it discriminated between residents and nonresidents in beach access pricing and season-badge availability.
- The court recognized municipal authority to charge reasonable fees but only on a uniform, nondiscriminatory basis.
- The court permitted neutral regulation of beach use (including capacity limits applied on a first-come, first-served basis) so long as it does not prefer residents.
- For budgeting and administrative reasons, the ruling was applied prospectively for fee-setting purposes.

## Legal Principles

- Tide-flowed lands between mean high and low water marks, and ocean-covered lands seaward to the state’s boundary, are owned by the state in trust for the public.
- The public trust doctrine protects public rights beyond navigation and fishing, including recreational uses such as bathing, swimming, and related shore activities.
- When a municipality owns upland sand dedicated to public beach purposes, the public trust doctrine requires the beach and ocean waters to be open to all on equal terms, without residence-based preference.
- Statutes authorizing municipalities to impose beach user fees allow reasonable cost-related fees but do not authorize discrimination between residents and nonresidents.

## Conclusion

The court held that a municipality operating a public bathing beach may charge reasonable fees to support beach operations, but it cannot favor its own residents by imposing higher charges on nonresidents or denying them season badges; public trust principles require equal access terms for public beach use.


Borough of Neptune City v. Borough of Avon-by-the-Sea, 61 N.J. 296, 294 A.2d 47 (N.J. 1972)