NJ's Answer To Flooding: It Has Bought Out and Demolished 1,200 Properties (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0180493019
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/31/1834240/njs-answer-to-flooding-it-has-bought-out-and-demolished-1200-properties
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/as-floods-become-more-severe-a-new-jersey-program-provides-a-model/
A Georgetown Climate Center report this month called the program a national model, crediting its success to faster processing than federal buyout programs, stable state funding and case managers who guide each homeowner through the process. The demolished homes become grass lots that absorb rainwater far better than concrete and asphalt.
Manville, a borough of 11,000 at the confluence of two rivers about 25 miles southwest of Newark, has sold 120 homes to the state for roughly $22 million between 2015 and 2024. Another 53 buyouts are underway there. The need for such programs is only growing. Sea levels along the New Jersey coast rose about 1.5 feet over the past century -- more than double the global rate -- and a Rutgers study predicts a further increase of 2.2 to 3.8 feet by 2100.
A November report from the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that billions in previously approved FEMA resilience grants have already been cancelled, making state-run initiatives like Blue Acres increasingly essential.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/as-floods-become-more-severe-a-new-jersey-program-provides-a-model/
Great things from small beginnings. (Score:4, Funny)
> Demolished 1200 properties in New Jersey.
Well, it's a start.
Wise move (Score:1)
Government buy-outs of chronically flooding neighborhoods are [1]nothing [eli.org] [2]new [eli.org].
[1] https://www.eli.org/sites/default/files/eli-pubs/actionguide-web.pdf
[2] https://www.eli.org/sustainable-use-land/floodplain-buyout-case-studies
Re: (Score:2)
Fair enough, but I sincerely hope “market value” was the REAL market value, aka “your property is marginal and uninsurable” rather than the price that some wealthy beachfront owner THINKS their property is worth.
Go midpoint (Score:2)
Personally, so they have incentive to actually move, I'd go with replacement. IE if you have a 1500 sqft 3 bed 2 bath place, they pay the median for a habitable 1500 sqft 3 bed 2 bath. Without any modifiers for 'waterfront' or such.
Concentrate on the cheaper properties first, the multimillionaire mansions can fend for themselves.
Being from the marshes of South Jersey (Score:2)
The more land we preserve along the waterways, the better. NJ is an OLD state, which was founded by people going up the waterways and working their way inward. Over time, we have learned that we need to give the rivers, marshes, and estuaries space to do their thang. If it means paying a little more in taxes, so be it. Money is not more important than the well-being of the planet.
So rich get a tax payer bailout? (Score:1)
This is a scheme that bails out the rich at the cost of the taxpayer.
Sold as social justice.
DEI crowd isn't even pretending to hate the rich any more, is it? They joined them, and they like it.
Re: (Score:2)
Only if you count middle class retirees and such as rich. There are probably a few rich people, but not 1200.
Modest neighborhoods (Score:1)
[1]This 2017 article [houstonchronicle.com] talks about a local government paying $20M for 200 homes. $100K was a very modest-priced home at the time.
[1] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Hanging-on-Oft-flooded-neighborhood-endures-on-12241877.php
GOP corporate mentality (Score:2)
Privatized profits, socialized risk.. that's the GOP play book.
Meanwhile (Score:2)
Those of us who were smart enough to *not* buy a house that was built a few inches above sea level get to foot the bill.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
You sound like the people in my /r/southjersey subreddit lol. My hometown is one of the most at risk towns of sinking into the water in the state. It's already an island (in southwest nj no less) and most of the land is preserved already. The buying up of the land and marshes really helps protect the land, animals, and people. Boohoo, taxes. Without paying them, you'd be living in a cesspool like Mississippi.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Those taxes should have been used to enforce building codes that say you don't build houses in a flood zone.
"But we didn't know sea levels were going to rise!!!"
Bullshit. Al Gore warned you about this 25 years ago. Edward Teller warned you about this almost 70 years ago.
Re: Meanwhile (Score:2)
Barring that, I have a federal solution. When you get federal flood relief you shouldn't be allowed to use it on any property that has ever flooded.
Re: (Score:2)
Teller is the first I'm familiar with to explicitly say, "you know, heat will make the polar ice melt... right?"
But fuck- the history of warnings of anthropogenic CO2 caused climate change are almost 200 fucking years old, now.
I love bailing out morons.
Re: (Score:2)
This is actually the BETTER option.
The other option is for them to get on the Federal last resort flood insurance program and have the Federal Government pay to rebuild the houses - multiple times as they flood multiple times.
Frankly, this should be a legal requirement - any last resort flood insurance program should have the right to buy the property outright at a fair price instead of accepting insurance on the place OR after a flood does more than 40% damage to the property.