12:3-5 Conveyances or leases to grantee or licensee under legislative act; amount of rental or purchase price; conversion of lease into conveyance; rights of grantee or licensee.

12:3-5. In case any person or corporation who by any legislative act, is a grantee or licensee, or has such power or authority, or any of his, her or their representatives or assigns shall desire a paper capable of being acknowledged and recorded, made by and in the name of the State of New Jersey, conveying the land mentioned in the proviso to the third section of an act entitled "Supplement to an act entitled 'An act to ascertain the rights of the State and of riparian owners in the lands lying under the waters of the bay of New York and elsewhere in this State,' approved April eleventh, eighteen hundred and sixty-four," approved March thirty-first, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine (R.S.12:3-4), whether under water now or not, and the benefit of an express covenant, that the State will not make or give any grant or license power, or authority affecting lands under water in front of said lands, then and in either of such cases, such person or corporation, grantee or licensee, having such grant and license, power or authority, his, her or their representatives or assigns on producing a duly certified copy of such legislative act to the Tidelands Resource Council in the Department of Environmental Protection, and in case of a representative or assignee also satisfactory evidence of his, her or their being such representative or assignee, and requesting such grant and benefits as in this section mentioned, shall be entitled to said paper so capable of being acknowledged and recorded, and granting the title and benefits aforesaid, on payment of the consideration hereinafter mentioned; and the Tidelands Resource Council, Commissioner of Environmental Protection and the Attorney General shall and may execute and deliver and acknowledge in the name and on behalf of the State, a lease in perpetuity to such grantee or licensee or corporation having such grant, license, power or authority, and to the heirs and assigns of such grantee or licensee, or to the successors and assigns of such corporation, upon his, her or their securing to be paid to the State an annual rental of such reasonable sum as the Tidelands Resource Council may fix with the approval of the Commissioner of Environmental Protection for each and every lineal foot measuring on the bulkhead line, or a conveyance to such grantee or licensee or corporation having such grant, license, power or authority, and to the heirs and assigns of such grantee or licensee, or to the successors and assigns of such corporation in fee, upon his, her, or their paying to the State such reasonable sum as the Tidelands Resource Council may fix with the approval of the Commissioner of Environmental Protection for each and every lineal foot measuring on the bulkhead line, in front of the land included in said conveyance; provided, that no corporation to whom any such grant, license, power or authority was given by legislative act as aforesaid, in which provision was made for the payment of money to the Treasurer of the State for each and every foot of the shore embraced and contained in the act; nor the assigns of such corporation shall be entitled to the benefits of this section; and provided further, that the council shall in no case grant lands under water beyond the exterior lines hereby established, or that may be hereafter established, but the said conveyance shall be construed to extend to any bulkhead or pier line further out on said river and bay that may hereafter be established by legislative authority; in case any person or corporation taking a lease under this section, shall desire afterwards a conveyance of all or any part of the land so leased, the same shall be made upon payment of such reasonable sum for every such lineal foot, as the Tidelands Resource Council may fix, with the approval of the Commissioner of Environmental Protection, the conveyance or lease of the council under this section or R.S.12:3-2 to R.S.12:3-9, shall not merely pass the title to the land therein described, but the right of the grantee or licensee, individual or corporation, his, her or their heirs and assigns, to exclude to the exterior bulkhead line, the tidewater by filling in or otherwise improving the same, and to appropriate the land to exclusive private uses, and so far as the upland from time to time made shall adjoin the navigable water, the said conveyance or lease shall vest in the grantee or licensee, individual or corporation, and their heirs and assigns, the rights to the perquisites of wharfage, and other like profits, tolls and charges.

Amended 1952, c.225; 2009, c.40, s.1.