The Army Corps of Engineers presented more details of its scaled-down plan to protect back-bay areas of the state from storm surges and sea level rise at a public hearing Jan. 22.
The revised plan, with an $8 billion price tag, identifies more than 6,400 properties for elevation across the five-county study area – including more than 1,400 in Cape May County – a fraction of the 16,000 identified in the Corps’ previous, $16 billion plan from 2021.
What the plan calls critical infrastructure, including hospitals and public safety buildings that need to be flood-proofed, is now listed as 279 structures – more than 60 are in Cape May – compared with 2,800 such structures in the 2021 report.
The revised plan is devoid of barriers and other structural components and is being called an “early actionable element,” meaning something the Corps feels can be acted on without significant additional environmental impact analysis.
The 2021 plan generated significant public comment about the structural components absent from the new plan. These included three inlet surge barriers and two cross-bay barriers. Based on those comments and the expected additional environmental analysis necessary to address them, the Corps moved to the new plan, which depends completely on nonstructural elements like house elevations or flood-proofing.
The new plan also includes seven locations for small-scale, nature-based solutions. Only one of the seven locations is in Cape May County, in marsh areas off Sea Isle City.
The new plan has entered into its public comment period, where it will remain until Feb. 18. Various ways of submitting public comment can be found at bit.ly/40qPPsD.
The new plan is termed a Tentatively Selected Plan, something the Corps has selected from multiple alternatives as part of its planning process. The study area covers 950 square miles and 3,400 miles of shoreline involving five counties and 89 municipalities. The study area is broken into five regions based on hydrology.
The Corps estimates that this area could experience $2.6 billion in average annual flood damage if no action is taken.
The study is based on the application of a five-year floodplain both in terms of vertical flood areas and inundation depth. If a structure is deemed to meet the criteria for elevation, owners would then have an opportunity to become applicants for funds to elevate their homes. The process is a voluntary one.
Members of the public asked at the hearing about the number of structures to be elevated. The Corps project team said a more precise number will not be available until the actual study of structures is done.
Asked about the structural components that were in the old plan but have been removed from the new draft, the Corps made clear that they have not been jettisoned, rather they have been placed “on the shelf” for further analysis.
The attraction of the plan for homeowners who would struggle with the high cost of elevating their homes is they would have significant financial help under this plan. This was a central concern of some members of the public, who said they have wanted to elevate their structures but could not deal with the cost.
If a home meets the criteria for elevation in terms of placement in the flood zone and the structure’s ability to support elevation, the owners will be able to submit an application. If the home is then elevated, funding for that process would follow from the usual 65% federal dollars and 35% state and local dollars model used in beach replenishments.
The homeowner would see the majority of the costs covered by the federal government, with the state/local/homeowner 35% portion to be worked out as part of the process.
In effect what the modified plan proposes is early action on a set of nonstructural approaches to elevation and flood-proofing of a smaller number of the originally proposed structures. It moves toward the solution outlined in the 2021 report, but incrementally.
State Department of Environmental Protection representatives were asked at the hearing whether the state was ready for the 35% cost share that is mostly covered by state funds in beach projects. 35% of an $8 billion tab is $2.8 billion, spread across the study area. The response was that the nonfederal copay would have to worked out.
The schedule anticipates a recommendation of a project to Congress by May 28, 2026.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
