Little Interest In Post-Flood Buyouts From Ocean County Residents

As officials in some areas of New Jersey begin to move forward with a state program to buy out flood-prone properties and preserve them as open space, there has been little interest to do the same among Ocean County residents.

"We've gotten very, very few applications for the program," from Ocean County's two barrier islands, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said this week.

Martin said more applications have come in on the mainland side of Barnegat Bay, and the agency will assess, along with local officials, whether buyouts should take place in towns such as Brick and Toms River.

But local mayors have said applications for the program – funded through the federal government after Sandy, but long known as "Blue Acres" in New Jersey – have been few and far between, and a far cry from the numbers in northern Monmouth County and parts of Middlesex and Cumberland counties.

In order for the program to work as intended, an entire neighborhood must be willing to sell. So far, that level of interest hasn't materialized locally, said Brick Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis. Just "a few" of his residents have expressed an interest in participating.

"The thing is, you have to get an entire neighborhood to want to do that," he said. "In some cases, if you take one house out of a block, that makes flooding worse by creating a path for the water to come in."

Plus, as with most issues, there's a financial factor.

"It's money," said Acropolis.

Though the post-Sandy real estate market may be down, once properties are restored, dunes are built higher and homes are built stronger, even the riskiest lots could increase in value.

"The bottom line is, the land is still worth a lot, no matter what you do, and as we build the protections in place, the land is worth as much, if not more," said Martin.

The state has at its disposal $300 million in federal funding to purchase flood-prone properties. The funding was included in the federal government's $51 billion Sandy aid package passed after the storm.

About 350 homes in Sayreville and South River in Middlesex County and Lawrence Township in Cumberland County will initially be covered under the program, the Star-Ledger reported in May. The program may also cover areas such as Sea Bright and Union Beach in northern Monmouth County.

Bob Considine, a spokesman for the DEP, said the agency has received 815 Blue Acres applications since Oct. 29, 2012, the day Sandy struck New Jersey.