CCB MEDIA PHOTO
The coastline of the town of Sandwich shows the effects of severe erosion.
SANDWICH – A Land Court judge this morning ruled against a group of neighbors seeking to block a $1.7 million beach re-nourishment project on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich.
The neighbors filed a preliminary injunction stating that the town was acting in spite by choosing to place 150,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the Cape Cod Canal solely on Town Neck Beach instead of in front of the neighbors’ properties.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which is dredging the canal and agreed to the place the sand on the beach, required permanent easements from the neighbors. The neighbors claimed that the permanent easements were not necessary and would devalue their properties.
In his ruling, Judge Keith Long opined that the neighbors “likely now regret this refusal” to provide the easements.
The Judge also wrote, in part, “I cannot say that the plaintiffs’ harm outweighs the Town’s.” He stated that the town was operating on a tight deadline from the Army Corps so as not to lose the opportunity for the sand entirely, which played into the decision to place the sand only on town-owned property.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor
Never understood the concept or wisdom behind sand renourishment. No matter what you stick in the ocean (sand, rock garbarge, trees), you can not circumvent the basic physics involved in erosion. Scuffing up the sand doesnt help either. Lots of money wasted in these endeavors.