On September 2nd, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will update community leaders on changes to the National Flood Insurance Program via a webinar.
Over the past 2 years, New Jersey has relaunched their NFIP outreach program by going back to NFIPbasics and utilizing key NFIP principles to address concerns identified by FEMA audits. This relaunch led to the development of a streamlined model ordinance process, a model permit, and a substantial damage template as well as an upcoming Floodplain Administrator Guidebook.
In this webinar, Rebecca Jones and Kenya Lovill of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection will give an overview these work products and discuss key learnings from implementation. Key topics covered will include:
- The work that NJDEP has done to educate Floodplain Administrators on key principles such as “regulatory precedence”, the “last permit”, concurrent I-Code coordination with the Construction Official, and most importantly, why NFIP compliance is not an “unfunded mandate” for participating communities.
- Economic arguments for practicing “mitigation prevention”, implementing compliant permitting practices as a cost beneficial way to adapt to climate change and avoid future cost shares, and performing substantial damage determinations in a timely and equitable manner.
- How NJDEP aligned State regulations that require meeting higher floodplain management standards with local ordinance requirements.
- How NJDEP has welcomed partnerships to strengthen community “higher standards” adoption and permit management practices as a way of extending limited staffing resources.
Attendees will learn about applicable NFIP lessons learned that can assist local governments in meeting current and future floodplain challenges. Hopefully, this presentation will help reinvigorate an appreciation for how groundbreaking some of these rules are even though they date back 40 to 50 years.
Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5516286354555/WN_vfP-eYgvQuKGC3tvCGZqYQ
