On January 24, 2013, New Jersey Governor Christie announced that the State is adopting the recently released FEMA Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps as a DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Standard.  The Governor did this by emergency rule effective immediately.  FEMA expects to proceed with adopting these advisory maps as final maps; however, this process will take 18 to 24 months.  Therefore, the Governor determined to adopt these advisory maps as the State standard immediately.

There are also amendments to three (3) Flood Hazard Area Permits-by-Rule, General Permits, and Individual Permits in order to facilitate reconstruction, relocation, elevation and flood proofing of buildings in Flood Hazard Areas.  These amendments bring the regulations into conformance with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) requirements, as well as requirements of New Jersey’s Uniform Construction Code.  The amendments require that substantially damaged buildings (greater than 50% of the value) be elevated and remove certain restrictions on items such as height of crawl spaces.