FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Christie Administration Announces Post-Sandy Planning Grant to Brick Township, Ocean County

Grant Will Help Sandy-Impacted Local Government with
Long-Term Recovery and Resiliency Planning


Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Richard E. Constable, III, today announced the award of $470,000 in Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grants to Brick Township, Ocean County, to put into effect comprehensive long-range plans designed to help the Township to become more resilient in the event of future significant weather events.

These grants are the second Post-Sandy Planning Assistance funds that Brick has received. The Township was awarded its first planning grant in April 2013, and used the $30,000 grant to complete a Strategic Recovery Planning Report, which serves as the Township’s comprehensive guide for planning initiatives it takes moving forward to recover from Sandy and reduce its vulnerability to future disasters. The second round of planning grants now enables Brick to proceed with planning initiatives based on the strategies detailed in its Strategic Recovery Planning Report.

The $470,000 grant is the largest grant awarded to a local government in the Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grant Program.

"As New Jersey continues to recover from Sandy, the planning that Brick Township is undertaking will identify opportunities to build local resilience and promote growth that is sustainable even in hazardous conditions such as those experienced during and after the storm," said Commissioner Constable, whose Department is administering many of the Sandy Recovery programs for the State. "We applaud Brick Township for pursuing these worthwhile projects and look forward to hearing of their successful completion."

Four neighborhoods in Brick were heavily impacted by Sandy: the Shore Acres area, Bay Harbor and Cherry Quay neighborhoods, Barrier Island area and the Princeton and Midstreams neighborhood. The grants will fund the study and preparation of neighborhood plans that will include resiliency techniques for flood prone areas, as well as design standards and capital improvements to be made within each of the neighborhoods.

In addition, the grants will fund:

  • Amendments to the Township’s master plan and zoning ordinance that will assist the community in recovery from the storm and provide additional resiliency techniques to respond to future storm events;

  • The development of a green building　 design and sustainability element of the Township’s master plan;

  • The creation of a Hazard Mitigation Plan that will identify and assess the various flooding hazards within the Township, as well as the associated vulnerabilities to those hazards. This plan will also identify alternative mitigation actions that can be implemented to reduce the Township’s risks resulting from exposure to flooding hazards;

  • The development of a Capital Improvement Plan to focus municipal capital investments as they relate to resiliency; and

  • The streamlining of the Township’s permit application process.

　

The Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grants are funded through Community Development Block Grant -- Disaster Recovery monies provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The grants are currently available to each of the nine counties most impacted by Sandy as determined by HUD (Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Union) and all of the municipalities within those counties that have experienced a ratable loss of at least 1% or $1 million due to the storm.

The program provides funding in two phases. The first phase is producing a Strategic Recovery Planning Report. To date, the DCA has approved 49 Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grants to assist local governments in completing this planning report.

When their planning reports are done, local governments are then eligible to apply for Phase 2 Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grants, which assist them with implementing the planning priorities identified in their Strategic Recovery Planning Report. For example, Phase 2 planning grants can help local governments fund initiatives to determine infrastructure needs to protect business districts on the waterfront from future storms; design standards to protect and increase resiliency in storm-affected neighborhoods; conduct topographic surveys and preliminary engineering studies to gauge future infrastructure needs; and develop capital improvement plans that prioritize need based on the safety of residents. Local governments have so far identified 230 planning activities and DCA has approved $5.9 million in Phase 2 planning grants to fund these activities. Applications for grants are still being accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis by the DCA’s Office of Local Planning Services, which is administering the program, until all funds are exhausted.

For more information on Post-Sandy Planning Assistance Grants, go to http://www.nj.gov/dca/services/lps/pspag.html.