The business community has an opportunity to weigh in tomorrow on controversial land use rules proposed by the state that critics say will undermine home-building and other development along the shore and inland areas that the state deems to be flood prone.
The state Department of Environmental Protection will hear testimony from the public during the only in-person public hearing on the Resilient Environments and Landscape (REAL) rules at 6 p.m., Thursday (Sept. 5) at Ocean County Community College. Two remaining hearings, both online-only, will be held Sept. 12 and Sept. 19.
The REAL rules, as published in the New Jersey Register on Aug. 5, are a 1,057- page regulatory overhaul of various NJDEP permitting programs that aim to mitigate flood risks posed by climate change. NJBIA, the New Jersey Builders Association and a coalition of business groups are opposed, citing the detrimental impact the rules will have on new development, redevelopment, and renovations of existing structures statewide.
NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor, who is registered to testify at Thursday’s hearing, has said the rules are overkill and based on outdated science with low-confidence assumptions. The DEP rules will effectively create no-build zones in coastal and inland riverside communities and force a “retreat” from these areas, Cantor said.
