BRICK TOWNSHIP, NJ – The New Jersey Tax Court is preparing to hear a high-stakes valuation dispute stemming from a bitter decade-long feud between beachfront homeowners John and Lori Westerhold and the Normandy Beach Association over access rights to the ocean.
The case, decided in part on December 5, details how a simple footpath over storm-built dunes escalated into multiple lawsuits, criminal complaints, and now tax appeals.
According to court records, the Westerholds own an oceanfront property in Brick Township that lies directly behind land owned by the Normandy Beach Association, which holds title to a stretch of dunes separating private homes from the beach. Before Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the Westerholds could walk directly to the water.
After the storm, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection constructed new dunes as part of a coastal protection system. The Westerholds later built a footpath across those dunes, which the association opposed, insisting they use designated street-end access points.
The dispute led to a series of legal actions, including Superior Court claims for beach access, malicious prosecution, and libel, as well as municipal complaints of trespass and criminal mischief against the homeowners — charges that were ultimately dismissed for lack of probable cause. The matter has since cycled through the Chancery and Appellate Divisions and remains pending on further appeal.
In the latest phase, the Westerholds filed tax appeals against both Brick Township and Toms River Township, claiming the Normandy Beach Association’s oceanfront and bayfront properties are significantly underassessed.
The homeowners’ appraisers valued the association’s bayfront clubhouse at $10 million and its beach parcels at $26 million, while the association’s experts placed the same properties at just $100 and $2,800, respectively.
Tax Court Judge Cimino noted that such “wildly different valuations” — varying by several orders of magnitude — are highly unusual in tax litigation. The court ordered both sides to produce expert appraisal reports ahead of trial, set for December 8, in hopes of narrowing factual disputes and focusing expert testimony.
Judge Cimino remarked that the case illustrates how a private dispute has spilled into multiple branches of the judiciary, observing that “the only thing the parties seem to agree upon is that they want to continue litigating.”
He added that the court’s ultimate decision must focus strictly on tax law and property value, not on the personal conflict underlying the case.
The trial will determine whether the Normandy Beach Association’s holdings along the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay have been improperly assessed — a ruling that could have implications for coastal property taxation and beachfront access disputes along the Jersey Shore.
