Last modified on May 31st, 2024 at 11:59 am

May 22, 2024

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a third batch of Blue Acres buyout funding for 42 specific properties, following the first batch approval for 14 properties in January and the second batch approval for 37 properties in April. These batch approvals are part of the $50 million Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) allocation for voluntary buyouts in New Jersey following Hurricane Ida’s impact in September 2021. This third batch approval brings the cumulative total of obligated post-Ida HMGP buyout funds to $42.9 million. 

Homeowners awaiting buyout funding opportunities, such as HUD-funded buyouts, can be assured that Blue Acres will provide timely updates on their cases as new information becomes available.

Blue Acres staff notified the owners of these 42 properties approved immediately via phone calls, emails, and certified mail. Blue Acres also assigned case managers to begin guiding the homeowners through the steps to receive a formal buyout offer. The recently approved properties are across five municipalities: the Township of Delaware, the Borough of Dunellen, the City of Lambertville, the Borough of Manville, and the City of Rahway. Blue Acres staff looks forward to providing buyout offers to the Batch 3 homeowners, as well as those still awaiting approval. 

The third batch approval is the largest yet and brings the total number of approved properties to 93 under HMGP. All properties proposed for HMGP buyout funding meet State and FEMA criteria for reducing flood hazard risks to life and property.

Among the priority categories represented by the 42 homes in batch 3:  

• All 42 homes are in a FEMA-mapped flood zone. 
• 41 of these are in the 100-year Special Flood Hazard Area, with a greater than 1% chance annually of flood inundation. 
• 6 of these are directly within the regulatory floodway (this means the home sits in the channel of a river or watercourse, within the area of direct hydrological flow or in the adjacent buffer area reserved to reduce flood volume during a significant storm event); 
• 35 homes were declared substantially damaged (SD), meaning calculated damages equated to at least 50% of the structure’s value;
• 33 homes are designated as “repetitive loss” or “severe repetitive loss,” based on the number of flood insurance payouts they have received over time from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program;
• 25 homes are in state-identified Overburdened Communities (OBC). 

There are 21 properties that are waiting for approval and currently remain under federal review. As FEMA approves additional batches of properties, Blue Acres will continue to notify homeowners and local governments. 

The goal of FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is to reduce or mitigate losses from future disasters. The Blue Acres program works to achieve this goal in two ways – by removing homes from high flood-risk areas (thereby enabling those residents to relocate to safer locations) and by increasing flood storage by returning the land to open space. This reduces the number of structures at risk of damage from flooding during storms and provides additional buffers and storage for floodwaters, which protects the remaining homes in these areas. Overall, this process makes families and communities more resilient to climate change.  

Blue Acres is a voluntary buyout program that only works with willing sellers. The buyout process remains fully voluntary from the initial expression of interest in a buyout to the date of closing. As part of NJDEP’s Office of Climate Resilience, Blue Acres plays an integral part of advancing the State of New Jersey’s Climate Change Resilience Strategy.  

April 24, 2024 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved Blue Acres buyout funding for an additional 37 properties, following the first batch approval for fourteen properties in January, as part of the $50 million Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) allocation for voluntary buyouts in New Jersey. Many of these 37 homes were impacted by severe flooding in April 2022, December 2023 and/or January 2024, in addition to damages sustained during Ida in 2021. Blue Acres staff notified the owners of these 37 properties immediately via phone calls, emails, and certified mail. Blue Acres also assigned case managers to begin guiding the homeowners through the steps to receive a formal buyout offer. This second batch approval brings the total of obligated post-Ida HMGP funds to $23.6 million. Sixty-three properties remain under review and Blue Acres notified these homeowners that while the wait for approval continues, program staff are ready to hit the road running as soon as the approval is issued by FEMA.  

Blue Acres is a voluntary buyout program that only works with willing sellers. The buyout process remains fully voluntary from application to closing day.  

All properties proposed for HMGP funding meet State and FEMA criteria for reducing flood hazard risks to life and property. Among the priority categories represented by the 37 homes in Batch 2: 

• All 37 homes are in a FEMA-mapped floodplain, with a greater than 1% chance annually of flood inundation; 
  • 17 of these are directly within the regulatory floodway (this means the home sits in the channel of a river or watercourse, within the area of direct hydrological flow or in the adjacent buffer area reserved to reduce flood volume during a significant storm event);
• 15 homes were declared substantially damaged (SD), meaning calculated damages equated to at least 50% of the structure’s value; 
• 26 homes are designated as “repetitive loss” or “severe repetitive loss,” based on the number of flood insurance payouts they have received over time from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program;  
• 16 homes are in CDC-identified socially vulnerable communities; and 
• 11 homes are in state-identified Overburdened Communities (OBC).

New Jersey continues to see record precipitation, with March 2024 being the third wettest on record, following the fourth wettest winter during the 2023-2024 season.  As the frequency and intensity of floods are anticipated to rise, Blue Acres continues to help New Jersey residents relocate from flood-prone homes, helping communities increase flood resilience through strategic floodplain acquisition and restoration. Blue Acres remains an entirely voluntary program, and always accepts buyout applications from interested homeowners. For more information, reach out to the Blue Acres team via phone (609-940-4140) or email (blueacres@deptest.nj.gov), and keep an eye on the Blue Acres website for future program updates. 

Last modified on May 14th, 2024 at 7:33 pm

After Blue Acres acquires a property, the home is demolished and the land is preserved as permanent open space. These open spaces offer opportunities to enhance the environmental and recreational benefits within a community.

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Last modified on May 22nd, 2024 at 11:26 am

January 30, 2024

Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved Blue Acres buyout funding for 14 specific properties across five municipalities in Bergen, Middlesex, and Somerset counties that were impacted by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida in September 2021. Blue Acres immediately notified the individual property owners and local government partners via phone calls, emails, and certified mail. Blue Acres also assigned case managers to begin guiding the homeowners through the steps to receive a formal buyout offer.

Blue Acres only works with willing sellers. If a homeowner chooses to accept a buyout offer and sell their property to the State of NJ, the property will be deed-restricted forever for use as open space, increasing the community’s resilience to the impacts of climate change such as increased precipitation and flooding.

Blue Acres is awaiting federal approval for an additional 100 properties identified within the same $50 million request for buyout funding that Blue Acres submitted to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). FEMA HMGP selected fourteen (14) homes to approve of the 114 proposed for buyout funding. Together, these first 14 homes sustained over three-quarters of a million dollars in Ida damages. Additionally, at least 11 of these 14 homes were impacted by severe flooding in December 2023 and January 2024. Full project costs, including purchase price, appraisal and title work, demolition activities and more, constitute approximately $6.1 million, or 12 percent of the total funding request.

As FEMA approves additional batches of properties, Blue Acres will continue to notify homeowners and local governments.

In December 2022, Blue Acres requested $40 million in FEMA HMGP funding for the acquisition of 96 homes. In August 2023, New Jersey adopted a Disaster Risk Reduction Area (DRRA) policy in Manville, designating specific areas as ineligible for public repair or elevation funding. In coordination with the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the NJ Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Office (GDRO), Blue Acres requested an additional $10 million in HMGP buyout funding to prioritize owners of properties in designated DRRAs. All 114 properties identified for HMGP funding throughout 20 communities meet FEMA eligibility criteria, including:

• 42 homes in the floodway (this means the home sits in the channel of a river or watercourse, within the area of direct hydrological flow or in the adjacent buffer area reserved to reduce flood volume during a significant storm event);
• 71 homes in the 100-year flood fringe zone (this means the home has a 1% chance of seeing a base flood every year, as mapped by FEMA and publicly available);
• 93 homes designated as “repetitive loss” or “severe repetitive loss” (this is determined by calculating damage claims over time, against policy coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program);
• 56 homes substantially damaged by Ida (this means the local floodplain manager certified that the home’s damage was greater than 50% of the building’s value);
• 30+ households in communities identified by the CDC as socially-vulnerable;
• 38 homes in Manville’s Risk Reduction Areas.

As part of the Office of Climate Resilience, the Blue Acres program advances the 2021 NJ Climate Change Resilience Strategy by supporting and incentivizing voluntary movement to safer areas and by restoring natural flood storage to decrease the vulnerability of nearby properties. With precipitation in New Jersey expected to increase by up to 11% by 2050, it is more important than ever to implement flood resilience initiatives. As a nationally recognized program, Blue Acres effectuates voluntary buyouts which are the most permanent form of flood mitigation, protecting against losses to human life and property in flood-prone areas of New Jersey.