NJBA REAL Stakeholder Submissions

 

The New Jersey Builders Association has actively participated in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s stakeholder process concerning the Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rules. NJBA has provided recommendations intended to advance climate resilience and public safety while addressing the rules’ impacts on housing production, redevelopment, affordability, infrastructure investment, property owners and the predictability of New Jersey’s environmental permitting process.

Examining Costs of REAL Rule

  • Elevation Costs and Housing Impact - submitted prior to the first meeting, examines the economic, housing affordability and community impacts of increased flood-elevation requirements, urging DEP to adopt resilience standards that reduce flood risk while remaining financially achievable and encouraging the replacement of aging, vulnerable housing with modern, resilient construction.
  • Broad Economic Overview - final memo submitted, examines the full economic impact of REAL, emphasizing that its costs extend beyond direct construction and compliance expenses to include lost developable land, reduced housing yield, permitting delays and uncertainty, projects rendered infeasible, and the resulting loss of housing, jobs, private investment and economic activity. 

CAFE and IRZ Meeting

  • CAFE and IRZ Memo - recommends a more balanced approach to CAFE and IRZ requirements that uses current science and median climate projections to improve flood resilience while preserving regulatory certainty, housing production, redevelopment and investment in New Jersey communities.

Dry Access Meeting

  • Dry Access Comments - recommends reforming the dry access standard to focus on actual public-safety outcomes rather than an inflexible roadway-elevation requirement, with reasonable limits on applicants’ responsibility for off-site infrastructure, objective off-ramps, alternative compliance, and recognition of emergency-response and regional solutions.
  • Dry Access Follow-Up - post meeting memo reiterating the need for a practical, performance-based approach to dry access that avoids arbitrary statewide numerical standards and relies on local emergency management officials and first responders to evaluate whether emergency response and evacuation plans adequately protect public safety when off-site infrastructure makes literal compliance impracticable.

Stormwater and Redevelopment Meetings

  • Stormwater Memo - submitted prior to the meeting, recommends a redevelopment-focused stormwater framework that recognizes the environmental and resilience benefits of replacing aging development, while providing practical flexibility for constrained sites and avoiding requirements that could discourage redevelopment, infill and brownfield remediation.
  • Stormwater Follow-Up - post meeting memo examining the cumulative impact of New Jersey’s increasingly stringent stormwater and flood regulations and recommends that proposed water-quality requirements be removed from REAL and addressed through a separate rulemaking, while preserving practical flexibility for redevelopment and basing climate-related standards on reasonable, scientifically supported projections.
  • Stormwater Off-Ramps - Stormwater sub-group meeting memo recommends removing the stormwater provisions from REAL and addressing them through a separate, dedicated rulemaking process that can fully evaluate their cumulative impacts, provide practical statewide flexibility for constrained redevelopment, and consider regional and watershed-scale approaches to improving water quality.

Wetlands, Riparian Zones & Misc.

  • Wetlands Issues - recommends preserving New Jersey’s strong freshwater wetlands protections while reconsidering REAL provisions that expand mitigation, conservation restrictions and permitting requirements without a demonstrated environmental need, measurable benefit or clear statutory basis, particularly where they could discourage redevelopment and remediation.
  • Riparian Zone Issues - recommends preserving strong riparian protections while ensuring that expanded buffers, habitat requirements, mitigation and other restrictions are tied to demonstrated environmental functions, current science and site-specific conditions rather than imposing broader requirements without a measurable environmental benefit.
  • Miscellaneous - identifies additional REAL provisions requiring modification or clarification across the Coastal Zone Management and Flood Hazard Area rules, recommending clearer standards, reasonable administrative procedures, site-specific flexibility and more predictable permitting to support housing, redevelopment and infrastructure investment while maintaining environmental and public-safety protections.