NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor posted in an Op-ed in the Cape May County Herald this week saying that proposed Land Use rules from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection are not supported by any current science and will lead to a retreat of homes and businesses from the Jersey Shore.
“(The proposal), if adopted, will have a devastating impact on the entire state, but its target is on our coastal residents,” Cantor wrote.
“(The DEP knows) there is no proven science justifying their position. But they also know it is easier to scare people and force them to retreat from the shore if they tell them that much of Cape May and other areas will be under water. It is part of their managed retreat strategy.”
Cantor said the main thrust of DEP’s Land Use rules, which total more than 1,000 pages, is to incorporate sea level rise into flood hazard areas which are largely determined by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mapping.
This “climate adjusted flood elevation” assumes an additional 5 feet on top of the existing FEMA mapped flood elevation.
As an example, if the current flood elevation is 6 feet above sea level, any development would then need to be elevated by 11 feet – plus an additional foot of freeboard.
Cantor, however, explained that DEP is basing these standards on a 2019 Rutgers report which acknowledges 5 feet of sea level rise by 2100 as an unlikely scenario.
“While we agree that the state should consider climate change and sea level rise projections in their coastal regulations, what the Murphy administration is proposing goes far beyond any rational proposal,” Cantor said. “In fact, no other state or federal agency is regulating SLR to this extent.
“The clear objective of the proposal is not to protect residents from rising seas, but to make it harder to live, work, and develop along the coast. It is the first step, a giant one at that, towards a managed retreat.
“The 5-foot standard is not supported by any current scientific study. In fact, it has been rejected as being of “low confidence” and without a firm scientific foundation. The Murphy administration knows this, yet they are pushing a SLR standard that will negatively impact everyone living or vacationing at the shore.”
It is anticipated that DEP’s Land Use rules, termed PACT (Protection Against Climate Threats) and REAL (Resilient Environment and Landscapes), will be officially proposed in July.
Thereafter, there will be a 90-day comment period and three public hearings.
To see Cantor’s full Op-ed, click here.
