Photo: D. Lentz / iStock / Getty Images
No doubt the summer season means sunny days, cool ocean water and literally bringing all the creature-comfort amenities from home to the Jersey shore! Well, here is your official permission to pack light. Leave your "kitchen sink" home. Effective this season, on May 15, 2024 the City of North Wildwood will enforce a ban on large cabanas, hut-coverings and other space intrusive structures will take effect. Officials say that single pole umbrellas that measure under 7-feet, 6-inches high and 8-feet wide and baby tents that are only 36 inches in height, width and length will be allowed while on the beach. Lifeguards in North Wildwood are sprucing up their stands before they hit the beach this summer season and they'll be watching for anyone who shows up with a structure that has now been banned.
“Right now it's just that we just don't have the space," North Wildwood beach patrol chief Bill Ciavarelli said.
Severe erosion is what prompted the city to ban beach tents, canopies and cabanas in guarded areas while it waits for a major beach replenishment project to begin in the coming weeks.
"Our biggest concern is any kind of medical emergency," Chief Ciavarelli said. “We got to somehow get through this crowd with very little beach to get to people.”
City officials said that if there is a change in the size of the beaches because of replenishment efforts, they will review the ordinance.