By DONALD WITTKOWSKI and NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
Two Republican Cape May County legislators and a Ventnor commissioner criticized Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed flood control regulations as a “doomsday” plan that will force residents to move away from the coast.
The Resilient Environments and Landscapes regulations, known by the acronym NJPACT/REAL, are designed to protect the coast and other areas of New Jersey from climate change and rising sea levels.
Murphy, a Democrat, has issued an Executive Order to implement the regulations through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, effectively bypassing the state Legislature from having any formal input at all on the plan, critics say.
“So, we have 120 elected officials in this state and not one of them was included in this. Just think about that,” NJ Assemblyman Antwan McClellan of Ocean City said.
McClellan and state Sen. Michael Testa, both Republicans representing the 1st Legislative District, took turns denouncing the proposed regulations during remarks Thursday at a legislative breakfast meeting held by the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
At the Oct. 10 Ventnor City Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Lance Landgraf, who is director of Planning and Development for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, said the proposed changes should be gradually phased in.
All three Downbeach communities have passed resolutions opposing the rule change, noting that the process should have been forwarded by the NJ Legislature for consideration.
He rfequested the board to send a letter along with the resolution to the governor before the public comment period for the rule change ends next week.
The regulations are currently going through the public comment process until Nov. 3. One of the more controversial aspects is a requirement that new construction in areas vulnerable to rising sea levels would have to be built 5 feet above existing Federal Emergency Management Agency flood elevation levels.
Testa and McClellan contended that those requirements are based on unrealistic projections for rising sea levels through the end of the century.
“It’s based on a doomsday scenario, as I would call it,” Testa said.
Landgraf said the state is using old data to formulate the plan.
“The should consider implementing it incrementally,” Landgraf said.
“They’re basing this NJPACT on a study that has already been debunked. That is really dangerous that we have an agency that is running amok and is really the shadow government.” Testa said, taking a swipe at the Department of Environmental Protection.
People who have already raised their homes to comply with FEMA height restrictions would be out of compliance, which could affect their ability to obtain flood insurance, Landgraf said. “People are going to be 12 feet high just to get into their homes. They will have to install elevators.”
Testa and McClellan maintained that the regulations would make it too expensive for homeowners – especially senior citizens – to elevate their houses by 5 feet and would ultimately force them to move away from the shore.
“We’ve all seen the stairway to heaven that some of these properties already have,” McClellan said, referring to shore homes that have already been elevated above flood levels. “That’s going to increase more.”
According to Testa and McClellan, the regulations could possibly extend the flood-control requirements into inland communities of Cape May County – such as Middle Township and Woodbine – and could force homeowners there to pay for flood insurance.
Landgraf said he is “frustrated” because the city and NJ Sen. Vince Polistina raised the issue with the DEP two years ago, but recommendations fell on deaf ears, he said.
“It’s frustrating dealing with this state agency,” Landgraf said. “We may have to file litigation and let a judge decide.”
Testa, an attorney, also questioned whether the 5-foot elevation requirement would violate the handicap-access requirements in the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal law.
“So how are they going to mandate something that violates federal legislation? The answer is, to me, I think they can’t,” he said. “There’s something called federal preemption. To me, I believe they would be federally preempted from doing so, at least from my first glance.”
Cape May County and the county’s 16 municipalities have adopted resolutions formally expressing their concerns about the NJPACT/REAL regulations. Cape May County officials have called on the governor to slow down on the regulations. They want him to take an incremental approach toward rising sea levels based on more conservative flood projections in the state.
An overview of the regulations can be found on the Cape May County website NJPACT/REAL. The website includes an analysis of the regulations done by the county’s environmental consultant, flood zone maps and a link for members of the public to post a comment.
A town hall-style public meeting to discuss the regulations is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Ocean City Yacht Club. Local, county and state elected officials are expected to attend the meeting to answer questions from the public and listen to a presentation by Lomax Environmental Consulting, the county’s consultant.
“These sweeping changes are moving forward without any vote or input from the state Legislature, and they would impact almost everybody in town in some way,” Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement Friday.
Gillian, who has criticized the regulations, said the flood-elevation requirements could dramatically change building standards, construction costs, insurance costs, affordability of housing and much more.
“While acknowledging that climate change and sea level rise pose a true risk, Cape May County municipalities have asked the state to conduct a thorough analysis of all potential impacts before moving forward,” Gillian said in the statement.
In their remarks to the Chamber of Commerce, both Testa and McClellan said the environmental regulations appear to be designed to discourage people from living at the coast to make more room for wildlife.
“They don’t want anybody living in coastal communities,” McClellan said. “You have these people saying that, and these are environmentalists, they want to protect our coastal communities for animals, but not for people.”
Testa said the DEP is acting as though people are the “invasive species and we don’t belong living in coastal communities.”
Representatives of the Cape May County business community have also lashed out at the regulations. They predict that the rules would cause serious economic harm if they are approved and called on the governor to withdraw them before any damage is done.
“As you have heard from others, the proposed rules will have a devastating impact on Cape May County’s economy. We have over $7 billion in annual revenues from tourism that will be impacted. Small and large businesses will be impacted by the cost of new rules on top of the existing regulations that smothers those that are trying to expand and grow,” Barbara Stafford Jones, president of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
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