Big Changes To Flood Zone Construction If New NJ Rule Is Approved

TRENTON, NJ — New construction of homes or other building projects would be required to be built 4 feet above the minimum elevation in federal flood zone rules, under regulations proposed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The proposed rules, called the Resilient Environments and Landscapes coastal flood rules, initially were proposed in 2024 and have been changed in response to extensive public comment and feedback the state DEP received, Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said.

The proposed changes will be published in the New Jersey Register on Monday, and there will be a 60-day public comment period and a public hearing, likely in September, NJDEP officials said.

The rule adoption likely would not happen until end of 2025, LaTourette said.

The proposed changes affect the coastal zone flood-elevation for new and substantially improved buildings and infrastructure. When the rules originally were proposed in 2024, the NJDEP sought 5 feet above the FEMA base flood elevation, but the change announced Monday would lower that to 4 feet above base flood elevation.

The lower elevation “effectively reduces the amount of additional coastal land area that would be subject to the building safety standards of New Jersey’s Flood Hazard Area Control Act,” the NJDEP said.

The proposed changes would also expand provisions in flood hazard, stormwater, coastal zone and freshwater wetland regulations that will allow projects with complete applications submitted to NJDEP before the rule’s effective date to be reviewed under the regulations that exist now, officials said.

There also would be more details and “appropriate flexibility” for design and construction standards called “dry access” for roads and buildings to ensure emergency vehicles can reach buildings in flood hazard areas.

LaTourette said the proposed rules “will better position our coastal communities to withstand existing and future risks from coastal flooding, sea-level rise, and storm surge” but will do so without compromising public safety.

The change from 5 feet to 4 feet reflects revisions to the projections of the rise in sea levels following a 2019 Rutgers University Science and Technical Advisory Panel Report that updated predictions of likely global temperature increases.

The proposed rule also clarifies provisions that “promote resilient housing and economic development projects,” the NJDEP said.

The revised projections are based on updated predictions of likely global temperature increases released after the 2019 Rutgers University Science and Technical Advisory Panel Report.

The NJDEP has a webpage, NJ REAL, with more information on the science and the proposed rules.

In addition to the rules for coastal areas, the NJDEP in July 2023 adopted the Inland Flood Protection Rule, to better define areas along the state’s rivers that are at the most signficant risk of flooding and that new buildings or reconstructed buildings in those flooding areas are “designed and constructed using the best available climate-informed precipitation data,” the state said.

LaTourette said the proposed coastal building height rule is just one of several ways the state is working to address flooding that has become increasingly frequent. Beach replenishment and dune nourishment projects such as the one in Ocean County this spring and summer; homeowners in repeat-flood areas deciding to take advantage of New Jersey’s Blue Acres program, where they can sell their homes to become undeveloped land; and infrastructure projects to help stormwater drain more quickly and to carry higher amounts of floodwater are all part of addressing the repetitive flooding, he said.

Some of the projects are very expensive. The dune replenishment in northern Ocean County cost $55 million, shared between the state and the federal government, LaTourette said, and a proposed New Jersey Back Bays project that was envisioned to build levees and tide gates to from Manasquan to Cape May has been scaled back because of the $16 billion price tag.

“There is no one single solution to the problem the community faces from flooding,” LaTourette said, adding there has to be investment for future challenges.