Changes made to the state’s proposed coastal development rules have not satisfied the opposition and have angered their supporters, according to early reaction to the revisions.
Department of Environmental Protection officials say the changes were based on updated science, public comment and other input. They were made in the face of strong opposition from Shore and other officials to the original proposal.
But what they have accomplished thus far is angering the environmental and clean energy groups that had been diehard supporters of REAL – Resilient Environments and Landscapes, as the program is known – and failing to mollify opponents.
The changes were published July 21 with a deadline for adopting the regulations looming on Aug. 4. By using the mechanism of “substantial change,” the DEP was able to extend that deadline, with the provision that the notice opens a new 60-day public comment period and has a requirement for a formal public hearing, which has been scheduled for Sept. 3 and will be held in a virtual format.
DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette has said that officials in coastal communities have made clear they are willing to live with a “greater level of risk.” The REAL regulations are intended to help coastal development meet the challenges of climate changes through the year 2100.
By moving the goal for adoption of the regulations to Jan. 20, the new approach allows them to be adopted while Phil Murphy is still governor but after the November elections.
The biggest change in the regulations is a new, more conservative estimate of sea level rise, with the figure dropping from 5.1 feet by 2100 in the original proposal to 4.4 feet. The DEP says this was driven by new modeling that forecasts temperature rise due to global warming over the next 75 years to be at 2.7 degrees Celsius instead of 3.3.
This modeling that the state will now use as a basis for the regulations lowers the elevation requirement for new and substantially improved structures from the originally published 5 feet to 4 feet above FEMA base flood elevation. The change also reduces the extent of the new inundation risk zone.
The new regulations provide for hardship exceptions for affordable housing projects and provide an expanded time period for certain underway projects to proceed under existing regulations.
But the changes don’t seem to have pulled any of those opposed from the start over to even a neutral stance.
The opposition to REAL had argued that the 2019 scientific report out of Rutgers used to underpin the original REAL proposal was out of step with current understanding.
Ray Cantor, deputy chief government affairs officer at the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said, “The revisions are not enough and will make New Jersey more unaffordable.”
According to Cantor, the proposed regulations, regardless of the substantial changes, represent an overreaction to climate-induced change.
“There is no doubt that sea levels are rising, and we do think we should be changing our regulations to acknowledge that, but you need to use the right science,” he said.
While those who oppose the new regulations assert that they still go too far, advocates of the program are sharply disappointed, with one, Jen Coffey of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, calling the changes by the DEP “reprehensible.”
Coffey suggested that Murphy has “bent to the will of developers.”
Pete Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, said his group is unhappy that the proposed changes have once again delayed the adoption of new regulations.
LaTourette said coastal zone mayors have pushed for a softening of the regulations. He spoke of numerous resolutions that governing bodies in coastal communities passed “saying the 5 feet is too much.”
In Cape May County there has been strong opposition to the REAL regulations from their initial publication on Aug. 5, 2024. Each of the county’s 16 municipalities passed a county-drafted resolution opposing the proposed rules.
Business groups across the county campaigned against them, and the county even hired a consultant to develop a report that was highly critical of the DEP plans.
A public comment page accessible through the DEP website facilitates text or the uploading of a file. The DEP website also provides details on the scheduled virtual public hearing on Sept. 3. The comment period ends on Sept. 19.
The DEP also provides a fact sheet and a prerecorded webinar on the proposed changes. A copy of the proposed rule changes is at www.njreal/nosc_courtesy.pdf.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
