Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Avalon, New Jersey
Avalon is a borough in Cape May County, New Jersey, occupying the northern half of Seven Mile Island (also called Seven Mile Beach), which it shares with Stone Harbor to the south. Wikipedia records the borough's elevation at just 7 feet above sea level, on a barrier island of 5.06 square miles, of which 0.79 square miles is water. That combination -- low elevation, a barrier-island footprint, and a real bay-side shoreline -- is exactly the setting where seawalls and bulkheads tend to come up, and it sits alongside another confirmed, if less specific, piece of Avalon's shoreline story: the borough maintains extensive rock jetties and ongoing beach-replenishment work along its ocean-facing side to manage erosion. This page does not have a name, count, or cost for any of those jetties, and it does not have a North Wildwood-style history of unauthorized bulkhead construction or state fines to report for Avalon. What follows is a general, honest look at why bay-side hardening is common on an island like this one, what the confirmed jetty and replenishment work does and does not tell a property owner about bulkheads specifically, and where to go for the rules this page does not invent.
Seawall or Bulkhead: Two Different Jobs, Not One
A seawall is built to take a direct hit from open-water wave energy -- it stands between breaking surf and whatever sits behind it. A bulkhead is a narrower, calmer-water answer to a different problem: typically a vertical wall of timber, vinyl, steel sheet piling, or concrete, built to hold back soil and stabilize an edge along water that is not throwing breaking waves at it, such as a back-bay canal, lagoon, or sheltered margin.
On Seven Mile Island, that distinction generally maps onto geography: the Atlantic-facing side deals with direct surf, dunes, and the rock jetties Avalon is confirmed to maintain there, while the bay side, facing the calmer water toward the mainland, is the more likely candidate for a bulkhead. Avalon's own total area is roughly one-sixth water, a real, Wikipedia-sourced indicator that a meaningful share of shoreline on this island faces bay conditions rather than open ocean.
What the Rock Jetties Do -- and Do Not -- Tell You
Wikipedia confirms that Avalon maintains extensive rock jetties along with ongoing beach-replenishment efforts to protect against erosion on the ocean-facing side of the island. That is real, confirmed context for anyone weighing shoreline risk in Avalon generally, and it is a genuine sign that erosion management is an active, ongoing concern here rather than a hypothetical one.
What this research pass did not confirm is a specific jetty count, the name of any particular jetty or replenishment project, its cost, or its completion date -- and none of that is invented on this page. It is also worth being direct about scope: jetties are an ocean-side erosion tool built to interrupt longshore sand movement, not a bay-side bulkhead. A property owner on Avalon's bay or lagoon side should not assume that the borough's confirmed jetty program says anything about the condition, age, or permit status of a bulkhead on their own parcel -- those are separate structures serving separate shorelines.
What This Page Does Not Confirm
This page does not state, and does not know, any Avalon bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, the current cost of a bulkhead permit application, or any specific maintenance requirement tied to owning or repairing one. No such figures were confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here.
No confirmed history of unauthorized bulkhead construction, state fines, or a settlement was found for Avalon in this research pass, and this page does not suggest otherwise. Separately, no current (2026) permanent population figure beyond the 2020 census count of 1,243, no current median home price, no current active-listing count, no current Cape May County or Borough of Avalon property tax rate, and no current New Jersey state sales tax rate is stated here -- New Jersey has its own sales tax and a property-tax structure genuinely different from Delaware's. No current FEMA flood-zone designation for any individual Avalon parcel, no current jetty count or replenishment-project name, and no specific current restaurant, shop, or business name is asserted anywhere on this page.
What a Prospective Buyer Should Actually Ask
Given how much of Avalon's total area is water, a straightforward, practical question for any bay-side or lagoon-front property here is whether an existing bulkhead is present, and if so, its age, material, and condition -- timber, vinyl, steel sheet piling, and concrete all age differently, and a bulkhead built decades ago may not meet a current permit standard even if it was compliant when built. A second, related question is whether the property is close enough to the ocean-facing shoreline that the borough's jetty and replenishment program is relevant at all, since that program addresses a different stretch of coastline than a bay-side bulkhead does.
Neither question can be answered in general terms on a page like this one. Both are property-by-property questions for the Borough of Avalon's own building and zoning department, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and a licensed inspector or coastal engineer who can look at the actual lot.
Who Actually Regulates This in New Jersey
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is the right first call for current coastal-permitting requirements for any bulkhead or seawall work in Avalon. The Borough of Avalon's own building and zoning department is the right local source for a permit application specific to a given parcel, current fees, and current inspection requirements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the relevant federal authority for dredging, navigation, and federally authorized shore-protection work -- including jetty and beach-replenishment projects -- in the same waters.
For anything specific to an actual lot -- whether an existing bulkhead needs repair or replacement, whether it meets current standards, or what a current permit costs -- the sound next step is a licensed New Jersey marine contractor or coastal engineer who can inspect the site directly, plus direct confirmation from the Borough of Avalon and NJDEP on current rules. Confirm flood-zone status separately through FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or permitting advice.
Ready to talk to a local Avalon agent?
Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Avalon's location on Seven Mile Island in Cape May County, New Jersey, its 5.06-square-mile total area (4.27 land, 0.79 water), its 7-foot elevation, and its confirmed use of extensive rock jetties and ongoing beach-replenishment efforts against erosion are sourced from Wikipedia's own Avalon, New Jersey entry. This page does not state any Avalon bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, current permit cost, or maintenance requirement, none of which was confirmed in this research pass; no history of unauthorized bulkhead construction or state fines was found for Avalon and none is implied here. This page also does not state a specific jetty count, jetty name, replenishment-project name, cost, or completion date -- only that the general practice is confirmed. No current population beyond the 2020 census count of 1,243, median home price, active-listing count, property tax rate, or New Jersey sales tax rate specific to Avalon was confirmed via primary-source research this pass. Confirm current bulkhead and seawall permitting requirements directly with the Borough of Avalon's building and zoning department and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), consult the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on federally authorized shore-protection or dredging work, check current flood-zone status through FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and have any site-specific structural question answered by a licensed New Jersey marine contractor or coastal engineer before planning work on an Avalon property. Nothing on this page is legal, insurance, engineering, or financial advice.