Towns in New Jersey rarely consider annexing their neighbors, but a long-running debate about redrawing municipal borders at the Jersey Shore is getting a closer look.
Seaside Park has hired a consulting firm to prepare an “annexation impact study” to look at the possibility of adding the South Seaside Park neighborhood in Berkeley Township to its borders, local officials said.
Some residents of South Seaside Park have been pursuing the possibility of seceding from Berkeley Township in Ocean County for more than a decade.
Government Strategy Group, a firm based in Wall, was selected to conduct the study on Sept. 4. The decision came nearly two months after the state Supreme Court unanimously upheld lower-court rulings in favor of the South Seaside Park neighborhood’s right to petition for an exit.
The firm will be paid up to $125,000 to submit a report to Seaside Park within four months. Public hearings are likely to follow, borough business administrator Karen Kroon told NJ Advance Media.
Berkeley Mayor John Bacchione did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 70% of registered voters in South Seaside Park submitted petitions in support of the proposed exit in 2014. The idea was rejected in 2021 by the Berkeley Township Council.
The neighborhood is the only part of Berkeley located on the barrier island with Seaside Park and is separated from the rest of the township by Barnegat Bay. The neighborhood covers approximately 10 blocks and has several hundred residents.
To access most township services, residents must leave the barrier island and travel up to 16 miles through seven other municipalities, according to the court ruling.
Seaside Park is just under one square mile and has approximately 2,000 residents.