Last modified on May 22nd, 2024 at 11:26 am

January 30, 2024

Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved Blue Acres buyout funding for 14 specific properties across five municipalities in Bergen, Middlesex, and Somerset counties that were impacted by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida in September 2021. Blue Acres immediately notified the individual property owners and local government partners via phone calls, emails, and certified mail. Blue Acres also assigned case managers to begin guiding the homeowners through the steps to receive a formal buyout offer.

Blue Acres only works with willing sellers. If a homeowner chooses to accept a buyout offer and sell their property to the State of NJ, the property will be deed-restricted forever for use as open space, increasing the community’s resilience to the impacts of climate change such as increased precipitation and flooding.

Blue Acres is awaiting federal approval for an additional 100 properties identified within the same $50 million request for buyout funding that Blue Acres submitted to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). FEMA HMGP selected fourteen (14) homes to approve of the 114 proposed for buyout funding. Together, these first 14 homes sustained over three-quarters of a million dollars in Ida damages. Additionally, at least 11 of these 14 homes were impacted by severe flooding in December 2023 and January 2024. Full project costs, including purchase price, appraisal and title work, demolition activities and more, constitute approximately $6.1 million, or 12 percent of the total funding request.

As FEMA approves additional batches of properties, Blue Acres will continue to notify homeowners and local governments.

In December 2022, Blue Acres requested $40 million in FEMA HMGP funding for the acquisition of 96 homes. In August 2023, New Jersey adopted a Disaster Risk Reduction Area (DRRA) policy in Manville, designating specific areas as ineligible for public repair or elevation funding. In coordination with the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the NJ Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Office (GDRO), Blue Acres requested an additional $10 million in HMGP buyout funding to prioritize owners of properties in designated DRRAs. All 114 properties identified for HMGP funding throughout 20 communities meet FEMA eligibility criteria, including:

• 42 homes in the floodway (this means the home sits in the channel of a river or watercourse, within the area of direct hydrological flow or in the adjacent buffer area reserved to reduce flood volume during a significant storm event);
• 71 homes in the 100-year flood fringe zone (this means the home has a 1% chance of seeing a base flood every year, as mapped by FEMA and publicly available);
• 93 homes designated as “repetitive loss” or “severe repetitive loss” (this is determined by calculating damage claims over time, against policy coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program);
• 56 homes substantially damaged by Ida (this means the local floodplain manager certified that the home’s damage was greater than 50% of the building’s value);
• 30+ households in communities identified by the CDC as socially-vulnerable;
• 38 homes in Manville’s Risk Reduction Areas.

As part of the Office of Climate Resilience, the Blue Acres program advances the 2021 NJ Climate Change Resilience Strategy by supporting and incentivizing voluntary movement to safer areas and by restoring natural flood storage to decrease the vulnerability of nearby properties. With precipitation in New Jersey expected to increase by up to 11% by 2050, it is more important than ever to implement flood resilience initiatives. As a nationally recognized program, Blue Acres effectuates voluntary buyouts which are the most permanent form of flood mitigation, protecting against losses to human life and property in flood-prone areas of New Jersey.