Like Long Walks on the Jersey Shore? Too Bad …

Looking forward to walking along that special stretch of New Jersey beach next summer? Not so fast.

Shore towns worried about high costs and courts worried about overextended government power are pushing back hard against New Jersey's efforts to expand public beach access in a state where some oceanfront property owners still think the sand belongs only to them.

Aided by a handful of volunteer beach access advocates, the state has made some progress in recent years making sure that the shore does not remain the private sandbox of a privileged few, adopting regulations calling for public access points and public restrooms.

It also used the threat of withholding funds for crucial beach replenishment projects as leverage for shore towns that might not be anxious to make beaches more open to the general public.

But those efforts have suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks. An appeals court ruled last month that the state Department of Environmental Protection had no right to order towns to allow 24-hour access to their beaches, or to require bathrooms there.

Some lower-court rulings also went against the DEP in local beach access cases, including one that sought to force Long Beach Island property owners to sign easements allowing public access to part of their oceanfront property before beach replenishment would be allowed.

Those projects, which pump tons of sand from the ocean floor onto the shoreline, are vital to keeping up with New Jersey's erosion, as well as making sure the multi-billion-dollar tourism industry thrives at the shore.

And a proposed state law would place wide swaths of industrial or urban waterfront areas off-limits to the public, citing security and economic concerns.

It may add up to a confusing summer next year, with people unsure of which stretches of sand they're legally allowed to be on, and when they're allowed to be there.

"There is just a major assault on all the gains we've made in getting people to the water," said Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, a coastal advocacy group. "People are trying to privatize the ocean, and make it something that belongs to a few instead of to all.

"The end result is more of the public is going to be excluded from beaches they're paying millions of dollars for," he said. "That's the insult added to injury."

Ralph Coscia, co-founder of Citizens Right to Access Beaches, or CRAB, said his group expected resistance to allowing greater public access to the shoreline.

"We knew there would be pushback on this, but if these decisions are allowed to stand, it could undo years of work in terms of trying to make sure the public can use public beaches," he said.

New Jersey's attorney general's office plans to ask the state Supreme Court to rule on the beach access case that was brought by Avalon, a Cape May County beach community that complained about having to spend millions of dollars to buy land for parking lots and bathrooms near the beach. The borough also cited safety concerns in allowing people on the beach in the middle of the night.

"People come down to the shore, decide to party, get tipsy, go for a swim at 2 in the morning, and if they drown, the first thing their family will do is sue the town because we allowed it," said Mayor Martin Pagliughi.

New rules adopted by New Jersey a year ago required public access points every quarter-mile and bathrooms every half-mile on any beach that has gotten public money. The access points requirement has not been affected by the court challenge.

The push for greater beach access in New Jersey came as the state helped pay for numerous beach replenishment projects. In 2006, the state sued Sea Bright and nine private beach clubs there seeking public access to beaches that were replenished with taxpayer money. The case is in mediation.

Under the Public Trust Doctrine, a legal concept adopted by New Jersey that dates back to the Roman Emperor Justinian, the public has the right to swim in coastal waterways and walk along their shores.

But a bill proposed by state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May Court House) would prohibit the DEP from requiring public access to transportation, military seaport, industrial, and energy facilities, and also would bar them from requiring the companies to pay for public waterfront facilities elsewhere to make up for the lack of access, which is currently done.

Van Drew said he originally had security concerns in mind when he sponsored the law. But he now cites the economic crash as another reason not to burden industry with expensive rules.

"I get the Public Trust Doctrine; I really believe in it," he said. "But enough is enough already. We already have enough regulations and fees in New Jersey. In the best of times, we can craft visionary legislation that will enable us to do all the things we want. Not now. Times are tough, businesses are closing, people are unemployed, and oh, by the way: here's more regulations and another fee."