When it comes to flooding, the governor is all wet, and New Jersey will be too

The delay of the REAL flood rules means more flooding, more damage, and more disasters

On May 29, Governor Mikie Sherrill announced a delay of the REAL (Resilient Environments and Landscapes) flood protection rules for more than a year. Delaying these long-overdue protections is a victory for flooding, overdevelopment, and disaster. It is deeply troubling because this delay appears designed not to strengthen the rules, but to quietly kill them.

We have gone from protecting the environment to siding with polluters, developers, and special interests while putting people directly in harm’s way.

Even as New Jersey faces an escalating flooding crisis, the Governor is not only failing to act — the administration is delaying what may be the only significant flood-protection rule proposed in years. These rules were already weakened by compromise, yet now they are being politically buried before they can even take effect.

New Jersey is one of the most flood-prone states in the nation. We have experienced flood after flood, disaster after disaster, from Ida to inland flooding to repeated coastal inundation. This is not bad luck, and it is not simply an unavoidable act of nature.

Flooding in New Jersey is the direct result of decades of reckless land-use decisions that put development before safety, politics before science, and profits before people.

Every time the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) attempts even modest reforms, developers, builders, and political insiders rush in to weaken the rules behind closed doors.

If we stay on this path, the next flood will not be a surprise. The only surprise will be how much more frequent and devastating these disasters become.

New Jersey: A state built for flooding

The numbers are staggering and should be a wake-up call for every resident and elected official in this state.

New Jersey ranks among the most vulnerable states in America when it comes to flooding:

• Third in the nation for people at flood risk
• Second in the nation for building in flood-prone areas
• Second in FEMA disaster claims

That is not coincidence. That is the result of political failure and special interests overriding public safety.

The REAL rules — “Resilient Environments and Landscapes” — were officially proposed on August 5, 2024. After massive pushback from shore developers, builders, and local officials, the NJDEP issued substantial revisions in July 2025 and officially adopted portions of the rules on January 20, 2026.

Now Governor Sherrill wants to extend the proposal process until July 2027.

Under the New Jersey Administrative Procedure Act, that creates a major legal and political problem. A proposed rule expires one year after proposal or re-proposal unless formally adopted. There is no grandfather clause. There is no tolling provision. The law is clear.

This delay pushes the rules beyond the legal deadline.

That means the state would likely need an entirely new proposal and process or just let them expire.

The legal confusion surrounding this issue is deliberate. It creates enough uncertainty to obscure the real objective: kill the rule possibly replace it later with something far weaker, or let it disappear entirely while the public is distracted.

I have seen these political games for fifty years.

The administration and legislators do not want strong flood protection rules advancing right before legislative elections. They do not want builders and powerful development interests attacking them politically. So instead of defending science and public safety, they are stalling.

The rationalization for the delay is that the administration needs more time to engage “stakeholders,” including elected officials, nonprofits, and industry representatives, and to ensure the rules align with broader administration priorities such as housing and permitting reform.

That excuse does not hold water.

These rules have already gone through stakeholder meetings, negotiations, and public discussions since 2019. At this point, the stakeholder process is no longer consultation. It is a stake being driven through the heart of the rules themselves.

What New Jersey has now is a flood of problems and a drought of action.

REAL Rules: Important progress being undermined by politics 

The REAL rules represent a long-overdue acknowledgment that climate change is real and flooding is getting worse.

The rules include important improvements:

• Elevating construction above outdated flood maps
• Incorporating future climate conditions and sea-level rise
• Expanding disclosure requirements
• Increasing attention to resilience and stormwater management

These are meaningful steps forward.

But they are still not enough. New Jersey needs stronger protections, stricter standards, and a real commitment to keeping people out of harm’s way.

Still, these rules are the first serious attempt in decades to undo some of the Christie administration’s disastrous environmental rollbacks. If these rules get pulled down, we will never get a stronger or more comprehensive rule.

Political and special interest pressures already have added loopholes, exemptions, and compromises.

The so-called “compelling public need” exemption could still allow development in dangerous locations where building should never occur.

Flood hazard “trading” weakens protections and ignores local flooding impacts.

High-risk areas still allow far too much development.

Most importantly, the rules fail to establish a clear prohibition on building in flood-prone areas.

One provision is especially offensive and dangerous. The rules include language allowing affordable housing development in flood zones.

That is not environmental justice. That is discrimination disguised as policy.

It means safe, dry housing for wealthy communities — and flood-prone, mold-infested housing for everyone else.

We already saw the deadly consequences during Hurricane Ida, when people drowned in basement apartments in places like Elizabeth.

The New Jersey Builders Association developers and special interests got compromises and rollbacks to the REAL rule.  They still opposed it and are working to kill it. That is because they want to pave over every inch of New Jersey, and damned the consequences. ” Let them buy snorkels” is their approach to flooding  

The affordability ruse 

 The governor wants delay the rules because of so called “affordability  ”                              

There is nothing affordable about flooding.

There is nothing affordable about rebuilding homes, replacing cars, losing businesses, paying skyrocketing insurance costs, or recovering from repeated disasters.       

There nothing affordable about rebuilding roads, bridges , water and sewer lines, and utilities 

The costs of rebuilding after floods far exceed the costs of prevention and resilience.

Weakening flood protections guarantees higher long-term economic damage.

There is also a growing risk that New Jersey could jeopardize its standing with FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program. If that happens, residents across the state could face soaring flood insurance rates or even reduced access to flood insurance coverage entirely.

Governor Sherrill’s troubling signals

Governor Sherrill has sent deeply troubling and dangerous signals on flood policy.

On one hand, the administration has said its a only a delay. On the other hand, it could be used to let the rule die.

She has also simultaneously:

• Issued Executive Order 7 freezing regulations under the guise of reducing “red tape”
• Created a “Permit Czar” position to accelerate development approvals
• Focused heavily on affordability while ignoring the costs of building in flood zones
• Fast-tracked NJDEP permits
• Moved toward privatizing land-use and flood protection permitting                                                
• She has basically sided  with developers. SCR 106 would dismantle the REAL rules entirely -She did it with the delay 

This is not leadership. This is surrender to special interests and protecting people from chronic flooding. These are rollbacks under the guise of affordability 

Fast-tracking permits and privatizing flood and land-use approvals — allowing consultants hired by developers to effectively issue permits — undermines the integrity of environmental protections and weakens independent oversight.

This delay is also an attack on the professional staff and scientific experts at the NJDEP.

The Governor is siding with special interests and choosing political science over sound science.

Acknowledging climate change while simultaneously accelerating development in flood-prone areas is like hitting the gas pedal at the end of Thelma and Louise.

The result is obvious: more development, more flooding, more property damage, and more people trapped in unsafe communities.

Nature brings the rain, but government decisions make flooding worse.

Christie’s rollbacks still haunt New Jersey

To understand how we got here, we must look at the Christie administration’s environmental destruction.

The Christie administration:

• Weakened stream buffer protections
• Opened flood-prone areas to more development
• Loosened stormwater management requirements
• Undermined the Flood Hazard Area Control Act

These policies did not simply “streamline” regulations.

They dismantled core environmental protections that were designed to protect lives, property, drinking water, and communities.

Those rollbacks increased flooding risks and placed more residents directly in harm’s way.

They prioritized short-term development profits over long-term public safety.

Because Governor Murphy never repealed those rollbacks, New Jersey continues paying the price today through flooded neighborhoods, polluted waterways, infrastructure failures, and endless disaster recovery costs.

Governor Sherrill has the opportunity to reverse those roll backs too and instead choose delay.

Instead, this delay appears designed to let the REAL rules quietly expire.

The governor needs to get real on flooding  

New Jersey’s flooding crisis is not inevitable.

It is the result of deliberate political choices.

The REAL rules are imperfect, compromised, and weak in some areas, but they are the first step forward. If we can’t get this rule adopted, how can we get stronger rules or programs to protect us from flooding?

Governor Sherrill’s delay threatens to kill them entirely.

She is basically doing the same thing as  SCR 106 through executive action. This will take New Jersey even further backward, locking in more risk, more destruction, and more suffering.

Governor Sherrill faced a clear choice and she sided with overdevelopment, political insiders, and special interests.

The Gov decided not to move New Jersey toward real flood protections based on science, climate reality, and public safety.

We can continue repeating the same mistakes: building in dangerous places, ignoring climate science, and forcing taxpayers to pay for the damage again and again.

Unfortunately the governor did not make the hard decisions necessary to protect our communities, infrastructure, environment, and future generations.

Right now, New Jersey is treading water.  Another flood is coming, and if this delay succeeds in killing the REAL rules, we will all need to buy canoes and kayaks to get out of our homes.      

Legal background 

Under the New Jersey Administrative Procedure Act (APA), codified at N.J.S.A. 52:14B-4, a standard rule proposal expires 1 year from its initial publication date in the New Jersey Register if it is not adopted. 

If an agency makes “substantial changes” to a proposal that require a re-proposal or additional public notice, the timeline shifts as follows:

• 18-Month Total Expiration: If a notice of proposal includes a formal public notice concerning substantial changes, the expiration deadline is extended to 18 months from the original publication date. This acts as a strict 6-month extension to complete the rulemaking process.
  
  • Statutory Command: The 1-year deadline for standard proposals and the 18-month deadline for proposals with substantive changes are set by state statute (N.J.S.A. 52:14B-4 and 52:14B-4.10). NJ.gov +1Hierarchy of Law: Administrative rules (N.J.A.C. 1:30) cannot legally contradict or lengthen deadlines mandated by the Legislature in statutory law. If the 12 or 18-month clock runs out, the proposal legally expires, and the agency must start completely over. NJ.gov +1
  • The Rule of Law: A Governor cannot use an Executive Order to rewrite or permanently expand the deadlines established in the APA.
  • Moratoriums vs. Extensions: A regulatory freeze (like a 90-day moratorium on new adoptions) pauses the issuance of new rules but does not automatically grant individual agencies a legal extension on their specific 18-month expiration clocks unless specifically carved out under emergency statute protections.