Shore flood control plan hits political headwinds

NJ Spotlight News

Proposal to update flood risk zones and enact more stringent building standards

By Brenda Flanagan

As New Jersey shore towns brace for another hurricane season, they are feeling some cross-currents in the political winds over proposed state rules designed to protect against rising seas and flooding.

A group of Shore mayors are trying to pause the expected final adoption of the so-called REAL rules proposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection that they said are overly restrictive and will harm their homeowners and businesses.

The new rules would update flood risk zones and require more stringent building standards to protect homes in flood-prone areas. The plans are based on the prediction that sea levels here will rise up to five feet by the end of the century.

“We are all acutely aware of coastal flooding, sea level rise, and all that. We live with it every day,” said Beach Haven Mayor Colleen Lambert.

But the mayor said she wants significant changes to the new rules. “We do not want to see this go through as it is, because we feel this is something that’s getting rushed through and, forgive the expression, but kind of rammed down our throats,” she said. “It does need to have a much closer look taken.”

Dunellen Mayor Jason Cilento — president of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors — last week sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders, co-signed by more than 130 conference members. It expressed their alarm about the DEP’s proposed plan, called the REAL rules for “Resilient Environments and Landscapes.”

“So we’re hoping we can get into the room with the [state] commissioner and maybe even legislative leadership to discuss this,” Cilento said.

Advocates for the new rules said they are critical to address the increasing flood risks.

“The facts are not, should not be negotiable,” said Tim Dillingham of the American Littoral Society. “If you’re going to take the steps to protect ourselves and protect our communities, this is the benchmark that science tells us that we should go for.”

Many mayors said they chafe at REAL’s constraints on development and dispute the data behind the rules. They predict increased costs for building and private insurance. But REAL’s supporters argued that’s the price of safety.

“There was some discussion that these rules create no-build zones, which is not true,” said Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future. “What the rules do is they explain if you’re going to be in a high hazard area, [and] how you have to build to make sure that you’re going to be safe.”

The DEP did hold public hearings where many of the concerns were raised, so Cilento’s letter is a bit of a last-ditch effort. The mayors also copied New Jersey’s two major party candidates for governor, Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill.

“The reason the other two candidates were copied is because ultimately … one of them will be governor,” Cilento said. “But we’re looking to work with the current administration because they’re still here.”

Added Ocean County Commissioner Frank Sadeghi: “We’re beyond the primary and now the candidates have been chosen, and this is a conversation that absolutely needs to be had with both sides.”

Sadeghi said he would host public hearings with both Sherrill and Ciattarelli, who take very different views on the issue.

Sherrill’s campaign said in a statement that the congresswoman would “strike a smart and responsible balance between instituting long-term resiliency measures in coastal areas and ensuring that we do not hamper economic development, especially the construction of new housing.”

Ciattarelli called REAL “big government overreach that unfairly targets Jersey Shore home and business owners … Most troubling of all, the proposal calls for a ‘managed retreat’ from coastal communities. It’s DOA when I’m governor.”

Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, called the mayor’s outreach “smart politics” with intense battles for both the governor’s office and the Assembly on November’s ballot.

“The best way to stop something in Trenton is any way that you can,” he said.

“Going to the candidates, making this political, making this an election year issue so that we deal with it after the election is done, is viewed as the most expedient way to get this off the front burner, to prevent this from going into action,” Rasmussen said.

A DEP spokesman told NJ Spotlight News that the REAL rules will be adopted this year, but could not give a specific date. A planned interview with DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette was canceled, in lieu of a statement from Murphy’s office that read his administration “is planning the adoption of supportive regulatory changes that will help protect New Jersey’s properties, businesses, and residents from increasing coastal hazards.”