A vehicle speeds down a flooded street in a barrier island community. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
The next time a coastal storm rolls through the region, Seaside Park officials will have an extra tool that can be used to dissuade drivers from not only being discourteous toward neighbors – but from breaking the law.
Seaside Park’s borough ordinances concerning flooded roadways are multi-faceted. Motorists are barred from driving on closed streets, but are not allowed to generate a “wake” on any street, regardless of its status, while flooded.
“Those are two separate violations,” said Borough Attorney Steven Zabarsky. “If you drive through a street that’s flooded, you’re in violation of the borough code. In addition to that, if you have flooding on a road that is open and there is enough water where a vehicle can pass, you cannot create a wave that goes over the roadway. That’s a separate violation completely.”
The issue has become more of a concern to residents in town as flooding, as a whole, has increased in frequency and breadth across the borough – especially on the bayside. In some cases, residents have experienced significant damage to their homes not necessarily because of the flooding itself, but because of waves generated by vehicles – usually trucks – that speed down flooded streets and create waves that physically crash into homes.
“This issue has arisen at many different meetings here and at the planning board as well,” said Mayor John Peterson. “The question is how to memorialize and put in writing signage for those individuals who are displaying not just a lack of courtesy, but violating a criminal offense.”
Borough officials said the waves generated by vehicles have also damaged public infrastructure. The borough, in 2019, added what was known colloquially as the “no wake zone” clause to the ordinance in 2019, however signage during flood events has always simply indicated that a particular street was closed to traffic. With heightened concerns from residents, some who have provided video of waves smashing against their homes, came a discussion of creating new signage that would emphasize both portions of the borough code.
Residents and business owners are exempt from the blanket prohibition of driving on their own streets, with the code stating they “may proceed at their own risk upon said areas to gain the most direct access to their residence or business.”
The discussion to place new language on signs was decided during a work session meeting of the council earlier this month. The council agreed that simple “road closed” signs placed on barricades and “horse” style blockade signs should be replaced with a notice that not only are vehicles barred from accessing flooded streets, but are prohibited from driving “where flooding or free-standing water exists.” The signs were to include a citation of the borough code that corresponds to the language.
Wind-driven waves batter the Jersey Shore on Barnegat Bay, March 14, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Wind-driven waves batter the Jersey Shore on Barnegat Bay, March 14, 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Two weeks after the meeting, the new signs are ready to go, officials said.
“The signs have been ordered, received and installed on all the barricades,” reported Borough Administrator Karen Kroon.
While Seaside Park’s signs will not literally say “No Wake,” as is commonly used in maritime parlance, the notices about the violation will be placed strategically at entrances to town so motorists will be aware that they are not allowed to create wave action with their vehicles.
Specifically, the ordinance states that vehicles may not travel “where flooding and/or freestanding water exists at a speed so as to cast or discharge a wave which carries beyond the edge of said street or roadway.”
Summonses issued by police officers to violators, if found guilty, result in a general municipal code penalty which, in practice, normally carries a fine.
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