Opinion: New Jersey DEP’s REAL rule — aimed at climate change — needs a reality check

Over the past decade, the homebuilding industry in New Jersey has welcomed and supported countless new rule proposals and code changes that advance the resiliency and energy efficiency of new homes. From mandatory electric vehicle charging stations to enhanced green infrastructure stormwater requirements, the New Jersey Builders Association continues to recognize that new home construction represents the best opportunity to further efficiency and resiliency in the face of a changing climate.

Redevelopment is often the only economically feasible approach to cleaning up New Jersey’s dilapidated and contaminated properties. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s recently proposed Resilient Environment and Landscapes rule ignores these facts and would make it harder to develop and redevelop without providing guidance for how and where our state should accommodate growth.

This rule proposal will devalue properties while simultaneously increasing the costs of development, exacerbating New Jersey’s housing affordability crisis. The REAL rule makes monumental wholesale changes to how the DEP regulates land, with many of the proposed changes affecting not only the Jersey Shore, but also New Jersey’s most in-demand areas like Newark, Jersey City, the Meadowlands and along the Delaware River. Communities currently struggling to meet the challenges of climate change and sea level rise will have to contend with significant land use restrictions that may substantially reduce property and tax bases.

Redevelopment will become more difficult — and, in many instances, impossible — and it will force municipalities to completely rethink their redevelopment and master plans. The effects of this rule are not constrained only to new construction but will be felt by individual property owners and residents as well. Numerous previously routine home renovations and improvements will require costly engineering and permitting and, in some cases, will no longer be permitted at all.

We need a thoughtful approach to climate change

The impacts of climate change are real, but our response needs to be incremental and carefully planned, because the impacts go far beyond our housing sector, with tourism, commercial business, infrastructure and transportation all affected. The public and private sectors need to coordinate across industries and state agencies, and this is a herculean task that should not be left to the myopic view of a single state agency.

The DEP not only wants to take the bold approach of being the first state to use future predictions to regulate land, but it is looking to do so using the extremes of the science and data utilizing a sea level rise forecast of over 5 feet that has only a 17% chance of occurrence in the year 2100. Coupled with the DEP’s existing regulations that make extreme predictions about increased flooding from rainfall, the state agency also wants to regulate land today that has a 0.17% chance of minimal flooding 75 years from now. The DEP should be assuming less apocalyptic scenarios and instead align itself with other scientific and governmental agencies that use a lower median sea level rise forecast. The DEP should be working with residents and elected representatives to create a plan that is best for their communities. Instead, the DEP is ignoring the pace and ability to adapt to climate change with engineering solutions and other resiliency measures and is tying communities’ hands with restrictive land use policies.

Countless recommendations about how to meaningfully address the threat of climate change while balancing New Jersey’s other needs like housing and economic growth have been proposed; unfortunately, the REAL rule proposal does not reflect the ample stakeholder input and expert opinions provided, let alone general scientific consensus regarding sea level rise. NJBA is calling for a more reasonable approach to resiliency and one that factors in broad opinions and strategies. NJBA strongly encourages residents and business owners to get informed and become involved in a much-needed debate with their elected officials and policy-makers. For more information, please visit NJBA’s website or realimpactnj.com to learn more about the impacts of the proposed rule and how to engage.

Debra Tantleff is the founding principal of TANTUM Real Estate, a real estate development and advisory firm, and chair of the New Jersey Builders Association. NJBA is the trade association representing the residential construction industry whose mission is to advocate for policies that create a more vibrant, greener and affordable housing market in New Jersey.