The state Department of Environmental Protection is likely finalizing its Land Use rules proposed last summer, but whether it retains the controversial provisions that will make New Jersey less affordable and equitable remains to be seen.
Over recent months, we’ve heard from many municipal and county officials in areas with tidal waters, as well as state lawmakers, who don’t support the extreme provisions that will greatly overburden homeowners and businesses with increased costs, exacerbate permitting delays and impede urban redevelopment.
One other person that we respectfully submit should be opposed to the DEP’s REAL PACT rules, ironically enough, is Gov. Phil Murphy.
In his State of the State address last month, the governor made a strong push for the reform of local zoning and planning rules to fulfill the mission of a broad affordable housing law he signed last year.
But despite the governor’s call for easing ‘outdated restrictions,’ the land use rules proposed by his DEP would unquestionably stand in the way of new affordable housing construction much more than local ordinances.
The DEP rule is a 1,057-page document that, among other things, establishes “inundation risk zones” and “climate adjusted flood elevation” areas for any new, expanded, redeveloped or substantially improved development.
Any such home or subject building in these IRZs or CAFEs will be required to build a whopping 5 feet higher than existing flood standards.
Further, the basis of this extreme increase is a low-probability flood prediction from an outdated, 2019 Rutgers study that is dramatically higher than any other sea level rise forecast from international climate science consensus over the next 75 years.
The policy will also effectively create ‘no-build’ zones by requiring no more than 3% of impervious cover for new homes – leading to what the DEP has promoted as “a managed retreat” from the Jersey Shore.
But this rule will not just harm coastal homeowners or builders. It will also have an irrefutable negative impact on homes and buildings in urban areas along our tidal waters.
Consider that the rules proposed greatly extend flood mapping into areas that have never flooded and may never flood, making the development process more complicated, time consuming, and subjecting development in many areas to increased and costly regulatory requirements.
The cities of Jersey City, Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Camden – just as a small sample – are obligated to provide a combined 6,134 units of affordable housing, according to state Department of Consumer Affairs calculations.
But given that many areas of those cities will be in these IRZs or CAFEs, reaching those affordable housing goals will be much more difficult, if not impossible, no matter what zoning or permitting rules are relaxed.
Further, the DEP’s proposal also changes the stormwater requirements so that a redevelopment project in an urban area would need to meet the same requirements as if it were being built in a greenfield in a rural area. This will make it even more difficult to redevelop our urban areas and to provide affordable housing.
While the DEP quietly finalizes these voluminous rules, we urge Governor Murphy to understand the full impacts of these restrictions if he wants to meet his affordable housing goals.
We urge our mayors and county officials to continue to oppose these extreme rules. And we ask our lawmakers to get involved with a policy that will impact so many residents and businesses and not leave that decision to one single department of one state agency.
Ray Cantor is the deputy chief government affairs officer of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.
