Russ Zimmer

@RussZimmer

Highlands is the first and only municipality in Monmouth and Ocean counties to get FEMA's permission to use the new flood map.

The flood maps are used to set insurance rates that reflect the various levels and types of flood risks in an area.

The borough council recently voted — as seen in the video above — to reject a federal coastal flood protection project.

On the same night that Highlands, which was ravaged during superstorm Sandy, rejected a federal coastal protection project, the borough announced that FEMA was cutting the borough a break — a bonanza that could save businesses and homeowners thousands of dollars on flood insurance.

A year ago, Highlands formally asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to allow the borough to adopt the preliminary flood maps ahead of the rest of the county. On April 4, representatives of the agency's National Flood Insurance Program informed Highlands officials that their request had been approved.

The new map reclassifies much of the downtown area as an AE zone, leaving only a sliver inside the previously broader VE zone — a designation that considers the additional risk of 3-foot or higher storm surges. This shift has major ramifications on flood insurance costs and building standards.

Here's what the two maps — current and then proposed — look like:

"What does this mean for our residents? ... Every resident should be able to use the new flood maps for their flood insurance beginning sometime in January, February 2018," Councilwoman Claudette D'Arrigo said at the beginning of an April 6 council meeting. "This is three to five years earlier than the rest of Monmouth and Ocean counties. ... Once that is done, residents should see significant reductions in their flood insurance (premiums)."

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Annemarie Tierney, who lives on Shrewsbury Avenue inside what is for now considered the VE zone, said she was quoted $22,000 for flood insurance this year. The change will save her money.

"God bless you, Dale. I know how hard you try," she said, her voice shaking, to Dale Leubner, the borough's construction official, during the meeting. "I'm crying because I'm so relieved, but really you made a big difference for a lot of people."

Leubner teamed with D'Arrigo to lead the borough's campaign for the break from FEMA. Rep. Frank Pallone and. Sen. Robert Menendez, both D-N.J., also intervened on the borough's behalf.

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Mere minutes after D'Arrigo's announcement, which was interrupted again and again by sweeping applause, the Borough Council voted to reject a $110 million coastal protection project. It was centered around a prominent sea wall designed to protect the low-lying areas of the 5,000-person town from the next version of Sandy.

While the majority of the crowd of about 50 full- and part-time residents appeared to favor rejecting the project, it was not unanimous. Some residents and council members expressed a desire to gather more information and potentially put the matter up to a townwide vote in June.

Ultimately, though, concerns over the costs — the borough's share was $10.5 million — and the aesthetic damage a sea wall would cause to property values won out over flooding fears.

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The borough's pending vote on the Army Corps of Engineers' proposal was not something that FEMA was able to take into account when deciding whether to grant Highlands permission to use the preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map, said Andrew Martin, the acting chief of FEMA's risk analysis for the New York and New Jersey region.

Contrary to what D'Arrigo said during the meeting, Martin said the waiver is rather common, even though Highlands is the only community in Monmouth or Ocean counties to have garnered it so far. Practically every town in Cape May County has gotten FEMA's blessing to use their new map, as have some in Atlantic County.

"It's something we’re offering to every coastal community in Monmouth County, and frankly every coastal community up and down the Shore," Martin said.

As for how FEMA's new maps placed Highlands, which lost 1,400 homes and most of its downtown businesses during Sandy, in a less burdensome flood zone, Martin said that the preliminary map "still shows a substantial amount of risk, just a different kind. We no longer expect that a 3-foot plus wave will inundate that far inland."

"We’re not doing this because of political pressure or for any other reason than that our model says this is what the risk is,” he added.

Last year was a terribly active year for flood events in the U.S. Learn more in the video below:

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com