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WATER WORLD: Flooding on LBI is getting more frequent, and new state guidelines aim to increase the elevation of new construction. (Photo by Gail Travers)<\/p>\n
The email arrived on a Tuesday about new New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection guidelines, under the heading of Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) and effective Jan. 20, on elevation levels for homes in flood zones. Four feet. Just like that, we are being told to go 4 feet higher than every calculation we\u2019ve been making, every foundation we\u2019ve designed, every schematic we\u2019ve perfected. And this goes for every family that was a grain of sand away from their new shore house.<\/p>\n
Four feet doesn\u2019t sound like much until you understand what it means.<\/p>\n
It means the house you bought because it was already lifted \u2013 the one that checked every box, that met every requirement, that represented safety and smart investment \u2013 is already behind the curve. The house that passed final inspection on Jan. 19 at dinner is now a legacy home by next morning\u2019s breakfast. Not wrong, just yesterday\u2019s answer to tomorrow\u2019s question.<\/p>\n
It means we\u2019re about to have a very necessary, very complicated conversation about what a house on Long Beach Island is supposed to look like.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not here to argue with the ocean. The ocean doesn\u2019t negotiate. It just shows up when it wants to, takes what it wants, and leaves. Barrier islands are fragile. We know this. The DEP knows this. And someone had to have the conversation nobody wants to have. Someone had to look at the data \u2013 the sea level projections, the storm intensification models, the uncomfortable trajectory of the next 75 years \u2013 and make a call that won\u2019t win them any friends at the beach badge sales office.<\/p>\n
So here we are. Four feet.<\/p>\n
What keeps me thinking isn\u2019t whether we need to adapt. We do. It\u2019s how we do it. Four feet is a lot of things, but gradual isn\u2019t one of them. It\u2019s a step change in a system that\u2019s still finding its footing. Homeowners have spent years learning the language of elevation certificates and flood zones. Municipalities have rewritten ordinances. Builders have refined their methods. We found a rhythm. And now the music\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the geometry problem: height restrictions. In most LBI municipalities, you\u2019ve got a hard cap on how tall your house can be. Add 4 feet to the base flood elevation and suddenly the math gets uncomfortable. Either you lose a story \u2013 try explaining that to someone who just invested in a building lot \u2013 or you\u2019re looking at flat roofs, which on a barrier island is an invitation for trouble. Or both.<\/p>\n
This is the probable outcome unless the municipalities amend their zoning, which they might, which they probably should. But here\u2019s where it gets interesting.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re going to raise the height limit, and I think we have to, then let\u2019s be smart about it. Let\u2019s tie increased height to increased setbacks. The taller you build, the farther back you sit from your property lines. Because right now, we\u2019re headed toward tall houses packed together like books on a shelf, casting shadows that leave neighboring properties in perpetual shade. It\u2019s known as the canyon effect. You know it when you see it: streets that feel less like neighborhoods and more like corridors with house numbers.<\/p>\n
And while we\u2019re rethinking the rules, let\u2019s ease coverage restrictions. Give builders a trade-off: more first floor area in exchange for less second floor footprint. Let the mass step back as it rises. It\u2019s better architecture, better urbanism, and it makes sense when you\u2019re building higher. The ground floor, the one that\u2019s now 4 feet higher in the air, becomes more useful. The upper floors become less oppressive to neighbors.<\/p>\n
I appreciate the long view here, the idea that if we do this right, we won\u2019t need another code change until 2100. That\u2019s not nothing. Proactive beats reactive every single time. The DEP is doing the job we pay them to do: looking at the horizon and telling us what\u2019s coming, popular or not.<\/p>\n
But I wish we had more time, a grace period measured in years, not weeks. I wish there had been deeper collaboration between the state and the municipalities that will actually implement this: the building officials who\u2019ll interpret the guidelines, the zoning boards that will navigate the variance requests, the planning boards that will shape what this actually looks like on the ground.<\/p>\n
I wish we could have done this incrementally, a foot every 15 years, maybe. Let the market adjust. Let the industry adapt. Let people plan their finances and their futures with something more than a month\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n
And I wonder if when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) inevitably raises its base flood elevation maps to match the new reality, will it still be plus 4? Or will we add another increment on top of that? How do these systems talk to each other?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have answers, just questions and a measuring tape. And the understanding that someone at the DEP had to make a decision that would be unpopular no matter how they sliced it. They looked at the data and made the call. That takes guts. That\u2019s what we need, even when we don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
But now comes the hard part: making it work. Making it practical. Making it something that doesn\u2019t just protect houses but builds communities worth protecting.<\/p>\n
Dan D\u2019Agostino is an architect with Plan Architecture in Washington Township, N.J. He owns a vacation home in Beach Haven Terrace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATER WORLD: Flooding on LBI is getting more frequent, and new state guidelines aim to increase the elevation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-143728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}