NJ Lawmakers Weigh Future of New Flood Protection Rules

New Jersey lawmakers spent more than four hours Wednesday hearing testimony on whether to rescind or rewrite flood protection rules that Gov. Phil Murphy signed on his last day in office, with housing concerns and climate risks colliding in a hearing room packed with competing interests.

The joint legislative panel, which brought together members of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee, did not vote but heard from developers, local officials, and environmental advocates about the PACT REAL rules, formally known as the Protecting Against Climate Threats Resilient Environment Landscape regulations.

Senate President Nicholas Scutari sponsored the resolution driving the discussion. It would declare the rules out of step with legislative intent and give the Department of Environmental Protection 30 days to amend them, with lawmakers retaining the option to invalidate them outright by passing a second resolution. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s signature is not required for either resolution to take effect.

Senate Environment and Energy Committee chairman Bob Smith, a Democrat from Middlesex, framed the stakes plainly. “The PACT rules and the REAL rules have tremendous implications for New Jersey citizens, businesses, and New Jersey’s environment,” Smith said. He added that he would share Wednesday’s full transcript with other legislators, raising the possibility of action within a few weeks.

The regulations themselves cover significant ground. They raised elevation requirements for new and significantly improved construction, created new wetlands protection and stormwater management rules, and expanded state flood maps beyond those drafted by FEMA, changes that drew sharp opposition from business and development groups during the years the rules spent under departmental review.

Jersey City Mayor James Solomon made clear his city can’t afford to wait on clarification. Solomon, a Democrat elected in a nonpartisan race in December, said he went to city planners before forming his position. “With respect to the lobbyists here today, I didn’t ask them for an opinion on this. I very much went to our city planners first,” he told the panel. “Their conclusion was in their current form the rules would impose serious unworkable burdens on development, rehabilitation across Jersey City.”

Serious. Unworkable. Those were the planners’ words, not a lobbyist’s talking points.

Solomon said planners found the rules’ exemptions too vague to be relied upon, putting major projects at risk in a city dealing with a persistent housing crunch.

That concern echoes what housing advocates across the state have argued since Murphy finalized the rules. New Jersey doesn’t have enough homes. Any regulation that makes construction harder, more expensive, or legally uncertain hits a market that’s already struggling. Some local officials have also worried the rules could block them from meeting affordable housing obligations imposed by state law.

Environmental advocates pushed back, arguing that ignoring documented flood risk passes the cost onto future residents and onto the public. New Jersey’s exposure to flooding, as reporting from New Jersey Monitor detailed, sits at the center of a real policy conflict, not a manufactured one. The rules were years in the making precisely because the department recognized that FEMA flood maps leave gaps the state has a responsibility to fill.

The political math, though, is complicated. Sherrill doesn’t need to sign either resolution, which removes one check on legislative action. Smith controls the committee calendar. And Solomon’s appearance made clear that the rules have made uncomfortable allies of environmentalists and housing advocates who don’t normally find themselves on opposite sides.

Wednesday’s hearing produced no vote and no timeline. Smith said the transcript would go to members, and the committee would assess its next steps, which means a decision could come within weeks if momentum holds. The PACT REAL rules took years to write and days to become a political liability, and the legislators now tasked with deciding their fate have to weigh whether a rewrite can satisfy both a state that floods and a state that desperately needs more housing.