Reflections on Sandy; December 9, 2012

In the wake of Storm Sandy, the Asbury Park Press asked me and several others to submit thoughts (in about 500 words) on current New Jersey law guaranteeing property owners the right to rebuild after a coastal storm. The columns ran on the APP's Op Ed page on Sunday December 9th (though they were apparently posted online a few days earlier). My comments follow and can also be found at this link:
 http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/news/newsstories/12-12-07_AsburyParkPress.pdf

Remembrances of Things to Come

    by John Weingart*

At a 1982 forum on Long Beach Island commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the last major storm to wreck havoc on the Jersey shore, panelists stressed that public policy toward coastal development should be determined only after a full acknowledgement of all costs and benefits. Former Governor Richard Hughes and Neil Frank, director of the National Hurricane Center, were among the speakers who agreed that the question was not if the weather would ever again lead to such damage, but only when.  

Six weeks ago, they were proven correct. But while the issues raised by Hurricane Sandy are not new, responding to them will require absorbing new data and reevaluating previous assumptions. Here are five observations.

First, the number of people who have enjoyed the shore since the 1962 storm obviously is much greater after 50 years than it was three decades ago. And many of the fond memories of vacations, weekends and day-trips undoubtedly center around houses, boardwalks and roads built in risky – and perhaps now devastated – locations.

Second, we now know that shore protection can be effective. Though such measures were memorably defined by the late coastal environmentalist Dery Bennett as “using taxpayer money to throw rocks in the ocean,” preliminary assessments from Sandy show that homes and businesses located behind well-designed dune creation and beach nourishment projects fared far better than structures lacking that protection.

Third, with each project costing tens of millions of dollars, the federal government will be able to support few of them - particularly given the vast array of other needs competing for increasingly limited public funds,

Fourth, where shore protection can be funded, the responsibilities of the towns and individual property owners who would most directly benefit will need to increase. Local shares should include financial contributions and binding commitments to dune maintenance and the provision of meaningful beach access for non-residents.

And, fifth, particularly in areas unlikely to gain enhanced shore protection, the prospect of new building and rebuilding will have to be reassessed by legislators, regulators and insurance providers as well as property owners.

  

The current law guaranteeing the right to rebuild was passed in 1993. It was, in part, a reaction against an earlier proposal aimed in the opposite direction that would have prohibited the reconstruction of any building more than 50 percent destroyed by a coastal storm.

Watching TV in the days and weeks after Sandy, I saw why the 1993 law is unlikely to be repealed. As people who were suddenly homeless or near-homeless reached out to President Obama and Governor Christie, it would have been (or at least seemed) heartless for either leader to say anything other than, “We will help you rebuild.”

Nevertheless, as the climate continues to change and the sea level continues to rise, we can’t    count on the next hurricanes delaying their arrival for decades as Sandy did. Property owners and government officials, even as the right to rebuild may be maintained, should recognize that in many shore locations to do so will not be the right decision.

  

*John Weingart, Associate Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, helped develop New Jersey’s coastal management program while working in the NJ DEP from 1975 to 1994.