TOMS RIVER -- Nearly three dozen oceanfront property owners in Ocean County on Friday asked a judge to throw out the state's attempts to take parcels of their land for a massive storm protection project.

Years of battling over whether the state Department of Environmental Protection has the right to condemn oceanfront property for beach replenishment came to a head in the courtroom of Superior Court Assignment Judge Marlene Lynch Ford, who has to decide if the takings are within the purview of the state agency or are an overreach in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The 32 homeowners, primarily on Long Beach Island, are the first to have their cases reach a Superior Court judge in a challenge to what attorneys agree are somewhat vague laws governing the state's eminent domain procedures and the DEP's role in condemning property for shore protection.

"Does this statute permit this taking?" attorney John Buonocore Jr. asked Ford in a two-hour hearing in Toms River. "The answer is clearly 'no.'"

Buonocore and a battalion of attorneys representing the homeowners contend the DEP has the power to condemn property for some projects, but not for shore protection. The attorneys have also argued that by taking the easements, the state would be turning private property into public beaches - something not expressly permitted under state law.

Buonocore accused the state of twisting the meaning of state laws in order to get more public beaches after numerous failed attempts to expand public beaches over the years.

"They are opportunistically seizing on the (beach replenishment) project as an opportunity to accomplish what they haven't been able to accomplish in all these years," he said.

But Assistant Attorney General David Apy argued that because some laws allow the state to take complete ownership of property for certain projects, it's reasonable to conclude that the state can control of the strips of land needed to build wider beaches and larger dunes for storm protection.

"This project as designed...meets the mandates that the legislature has given to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection," said, Apy, who was also accompanied by a cadre of attorneys.

At issue are the thousands of easements the state has been seeking from oceanfront property owners along the New Jersey coastline for the federal beach replenishment project. The easements are strips of beachfront upon which dunes and wider beaches will be built. Many property owners have granted those easements - voluntarily giving up their rights and control over those strips. But others have refused. In turn, the state is trying to forcibly obtain those easements by condemning the strips through the state's eminent domain law.

Some oceanfront homeowners have refused to grant the easements because they said they don't like the idea of forever giving up their rights to the property. Others have said the process doesn't appropriately compensate them for their losses - such as ocean views and privacy.

Because of New Jersey's disjointed development rules, some oceanfront homeowners actually own the dry sand up to the mean high tide line. In upholding the state's Public Trust Doctrine, courts over the years have said the public is entitled to access to the strip of dry sand above the mean high tide line. But how the public gets access to that strip of dry sand has been the subject of many legal battles over the decades.

Building dunes and wider beaches would mean those residents no longer own the beach or dunes in front of their homes.

Ford said she would issue a decision within a week.

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.