Last modified on May 31st, 2024 at 11:59 am

May 22, 2024

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a third batch of Blue Acres buyout funding for 42 specific properties, following the first batch approval for 14 properties in January and the second batch approval for 37 properties in April. These batch approvals are part of the $50 million Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) allocation for voluntary buyouts in New Jersey following Hurricane Ida’s impact in September 2021. This third batch approval brings the cumulative total of obligated post-Ida HMGP buyout funds to $42.9 million. 

Homeowners awaiting buyout funding opportunities, such as HUD-funded buyouts, can be assured that Blue Acres will provide timely updates on their cases as new information becomes available.

Blue Acres staff notified the owners of these 42 properties approved immediately 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. The recently approved properties are across five municipalities: the Township of Delaware, the Borough of Dunellen, the City of Lambertville, the Borough of Manville, and the City of Rahway. Blue Acres staff looks forward to providing buyout offers to the Batch 3 homeowners, as well as those still awaiting approval. 

The third batch approval is the largest yet and brings the total number of approved properties to 93 under HMGP. All properties proposed for HMGP buyout funding meet State and FEMA criteria for reducing flood hazard risks to life and property.

Among the priority categories represented by the 42 homes in batch 3:  

• All 42 homes are in a FEMA-mapped flood zone. 
• 41 of these are in the 100-year Special Flood Hazard Area, with a greater than 1% chance annually of flood inundation. 
• 6 of these are directly within the regulatory 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); 
• 35 homes were declared substantially damaged (SD), meaning calculated damages equated to at least 50% of the structure’s value;
• 33 homes are designated as “repetitive loss” or “severe repetitive loss,” based on the number of flood insurance payouts they have received over time from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program;
• 25 homes are in state-identified Overburdened Communities (OBC). 

There are 21 properties that are waiting for approval and currently remain under federal review. As FEMA approves additional batches of properties, Blue Acres will continue to notify homeowners and local governments. 

The goal of FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is to reduce or mitigate losses from future disasters. The Blue Acres program works to achieve this goal in two ways – by removing homes from high flood-risk areas (thereby enabling those residents to relocate to safer locations) and by increasing flood storage by returning the land to open space. This reduces the number of structures at risk of damage from flooding during storms and provides additional buffers and storage for floodwaters, which protects the remaining homes in these areas. Overall, this process makes families and communities more resilient to climate change.  

Blue Acres is a voluntary buyout program that only works with willing sellers. The buyout process remains fully voluntary from the initial expression of interest in a buyout to the date of closing. As part of NJDEP’s Office of Climate Resilience, Blue Acres plays an integral part of advancing the State of New Jersey’s Climate Change Resilience Strategy.