Murphy administration’s regulatory overkill will destroy the Jersey Shore

Asbury Park Press

By Frank Sadeghi

With all the noise and rancor of the presidential campaign consuming everyone’s attention and energy, a critical rule change being made by the Murphy Administration — which could have a potentially calamitous impact on Ocean County and the entire Jersey Shore — went almost completely unnoticed. I am talking about the 1,044-page, so-called Resilient Environments and Landscape Rule Proposal, otherwise known as REAL.

Most of you are probably asking yourselves: What the heck is that? Therein lies the problem. Most residents I have spoken to during my travels around my home County of Ocean know nothing about these proposed state regulations, nor do they have any sense of the potentially grave economic and financial impact on their lives it could cause.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of several elected officials, business leaders, and other stakeholders, Gov. Phil Murphy and the NJDEP recently closed public comment on the proposal and are preparing to move forward.

I think this is a huge mistake and urge them to reconsider. I am also urging Jersey Shore residents to make their voices heard — public comment timeframe be damned!

As an Ocean County Commissioner — but also as a Certified Municipal & Professional Engineer who owns an Engineering business and a building company on the Jersey Shore, and who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Land Surveying from the NJ Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in City & Regional Planning from Rutgers University — let me quickly summarize what we are all facing.

In short, the proposed REAL Rule will render a growing number of development and redevelopment projects as surefire financial losers, effectively creating “No Build Zones” on the barrier islands and coastal communities of Ocean County and elsewhere. Further, should another Superstorm Sandy or similarly damaging storm hit our county, the REAL Rule will adversely impact the ability of people to rebuild, should they so choose.

The REAL Rule will severely reduce property values, starve shore communities of local tax revenue, and mandate expensive flood insurance, even in areas that have never flooded and likely will never flood. Our friends in Cape May County have pointed out that these proposal rules are based on projected sea-level rise for the year 2100 that has less than a 1-in-5 chance of occurring. Make no mistake, this is radical ideology masked as science to frighten people, and it is wrong.

Perhaps most alarming of all, is that the proposed rule calls for a “managed retreat” (that is really what it says!) for residents and business owners on the Jersey Shore and even in urban river communities like Hoboken. A “managed retreat” is what the NJDEP refers to as a “climate adaptation strategy,” which they hope leads to government buyouts of at-risk properties in coastal areas.

The proposed new regulations are so absurd and extreme that they would even seek to impose mandates on things like the construction and storage of lifeguard stands, as well as force new rules governing the location and capacity of beach badge sheds, which local towns use as a base of operation for not only distributing badges, but where many house equipment used to keep people safe and maintain the beach.

While the REAL Rule is being presented as a way to protect residents, what it does in reality is make it harder to live, work, and develop along the coast. That is why I stand with The League of Municipalities and others across the state who believe that more time is needed for these regulations to be refined in a manner where we can find common ground, and where the public has the opportunity to weigh-in more fully on something that will have significant consequences for generations to come.

Frank Sadeghi is a member of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners, where he serves as liaison to the Ocean County Division of Business Development and Tourism. He is the principal owner of Morgan Engineering and Ayra Properties and is Certified Municipal Engineer and Professional Engineer in the state of New Jersey.