Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Longport, New Jersey
Longport is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City. Wikipedia records Longport's total area at just 1.56 square miles -- only 0.40 square miles of land against 1.16 square miles of water, meaning the borough is roughly 74.49% water today, among the highest water-to-land ratios of any shore town. That geography is not just a historical footnote: between 1900 and 1916, storms eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets on the barrier island's southern end, a real, documented loss that still shapes Longport's water-dominant footprint. A town this surrounded by water is naturally a town where bulkheads and seawalls along canals, lagoons, and bay frontage are a genuinely central, practical concern for property owners, not a niche one. This page lays out the general distinction between the two structures, what Longport's own geography and history tell a property owner and what they do not, and where to go for New Jersey's real coastal-construction permitting requirements -- without inventing a permit fee, a contractor name, or an engineering spec for any Longport property.
Seawall or Bulkhead: Two Different Jobs, Not One
A seawall is built to absorb direct, 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 a barrier island as narrow as Longport, that distinction maps directly onto geography. The Atlantic-facing side deals with direct surf and dunes -- the same dunes Longport installed seven educational signs to protect in 2025 -- while the bay and inlet side, facing the calmer water that makes up 1.16 of the borough's 1.56 square miles, is the far more likely setting for a bulkhead. With this much of the town's own area classified as water, a large share of Longport's private shoreline realistically faces bay or lagoon conditions rather than open ocean.
What Longport’s Water-Dominant Geography Actually Means Here
Wikipedia confirms Longport's total area as 1.56 square miles, of which only 0.40 is land and 1.16 is water -- a 74.49% water share that is among the highest of any market on this site. That is not an abstract statistic for a waterfront property owner: it means canal-front, lagoon-front, and bay-front lots are not an edge case in Longport, they are close to the norm for a meaningful share of the borough.
The wider region around Longport underscores the same point. Nearby Seaview Harbor -- a waterfront subdivision developed in the 1960s, comprising 92 homes with private docks plus a marina with 300 boat slips -- sits just across the way in Egg Harbor Township, not within Longport itself; its owners spent roughly a decade, from 2014 to 2022, in a fully litigated bid to leave Egg Harbor Township and join Longport instead, a case that reached the New Jersey Supreme Court before ultimately failing. Seaview Harbor is not a Longport property and this page does not suggest otherwise, but its scale -- 92 homes built around private docks in the immediate area -- is a real, documented illustration of just how central waterfront and bulkhead-adjacent living is to this stretch of the New Jersey coast.
CAFRA and Coastal Construction Permitting in New Jersey
New Jersey regulates coastal construction, including bulkhead and seawall work, under real state law -- most notably the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). This is not a hypothetical framework for Longport specifically: DownBeach reported in July 2025 that Longport funded a $5,000 initiative installing seven educational dune-protection signs along beach crossovers, and that funding came through a CAFRA Trust Fund donation, a documented, real link between CAFRA and active coastal-stewardship spending in this exact borough.
That confirmed CAFRA Trust Fund donation tells a property owner that CAFRA-related coastal permitting is a live, real part of how Longport's shoreline is managed -- but it does not tell anyone a bulkhead permit application fee, a required setback, a specific engineering standard, or how long a CAFRA review takes for a given lot. None of those figures were confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here.
What This Page Does Not Confirm
This page does not state, and does not know, any Longport bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, the current cost of a bulkhead or CAFRA permit application, or any specific maintenance requirement tied to owning or repairing a bulkhead here. No such figures were confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented. No contractor name and no specific engineering spec for any Longport bulkhead is asserted anywhere on this page.
No current (2026) permanent population figure beyond the 2020 census count of 893, no current median home price, no current active-listing count, and no current Atlantic County or Borough of Longport property tax rate is stated here. Longport's average property tax bill reached $10,872 in 2018 -- the highest in Atlantic County that year -- and Longport ranked 22nd among New Jersey's most expensive ZIP codes in 2018 with a median home sale price of $767,500 in 2017, but both figures are historical and should not be treated as current. No current New Jersey state sales tax rate is stated here either -- 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 Longport parcel is stated on this page.
What a Prospective Buyer Should Actually Ask
Given how much of Longport's total area is water, a straightforward, practical question for any bay-front, lagoon-front, or canal-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 question worth asking is whether any recent or planned CAFRA-related coastal work in the area -- like the confirmed 2025 dune-signage initiative -- has any bearing on a specific lot, since dune protection and bulkhead permitting are related but separate pieces of New Jersey's coastal-construction rules.
Neither question can be answered in general terms on a page like this one. Both are property-by-property questions for the Borough of Longport'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), including its administration of the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), is the right first call for current coastal-permitting requirements for any bulkhead or seawall work in Longport. The Borough of Longport'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 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 Longport 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.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Longport's location on the southwest corner of Absecon Island in Atlantic County, New Jersey, its 1.56-square-mile total area (0.40 land, 1.16 water -- 74.49% water), its 2020 census population of 893, and the 1900-1916 storm erosion of 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets are sourced from Wikipedia's own Longport, New Jersey entry. The Seaview Harbor secession litigation -- a 92-home, private-dock waterfront subdivision in Egg Harbor Township that petitioned from 2014 to 2022 to join Longport instead, reaching the New Jersey Supreme Court before the petition failed -- is sourced from The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Press of Atlantic City, and DownBeach's own coverage; Seaview Harbor remains part of Egg Harbor Township, not Longport. The July 2025 installation of seven educational dune-protection signs, funded by a $5,000 initiative including a CAFRA Trust Fund donation, is sourced from DownBeach's own July 2025 coverage. This page does not state any Longport bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, current permit cost, or maintenance requirement, none of which was confirmed in this research pass; no contractor name or specific engineering spec is stated or implied here. The $10,872 average 2018 property tax bill and the $767,500 2017 median home sale price are historical figures and are not current. No current population beyond the 2020 census count of 893, median home price, active-listing count, property tax rate, or New Jersey sales tax rate specific to Longport was confirmed via primary-source research this pass. Confirm current bulkhead and seawall permitting requirements directly with the Borough of Longport'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 a Longport property. Nothing on this page is legal, insurance, engineering, or financial advice.