after years of debates the state has adopted a long-awaited rule limiting Construction in flood-prone areas the new guidelines take effect this summer and control where development can be built based on the threat of Inland flooding using updated Maps as Ted Goldberg reports it comes after clashes between business and environmental groups it will protect lives it will save communities environmental groups are applauding New Jersey's new flood rules for Inland areas after years of floods the state is reclassifying how it calculates rainfall and nearly doubling the size of floodplains in parts of New Jersey Jennifer Coffey is the executive director of The Association of New Jersey environmental commissions or anjec currently we use data from 1899 so 20 years before women got the right to vote to 8 to 1999 by calculating the math correctly now and taking into account our climate future we are then more accurately able to delineate our floodplains and to manage for storm water you're using storm water or rainfall amounts that were recorded in 1999 and as storms got more intense and more precipitation nothing was done to regulate storm water regulation Manville mayor Richard ondarko saw his Borough receive devastating flooding when remnants of Ida came through two years ago he spoke with the Department of Environmental Protection to give input on these rules hoping they'll protect other communities if not his own the new rules are good but they're probably a little too late to save parts of my town they're not going to do anything to lower stormwater route levels and that's that's troubling to me the Army Corps came into Manville and they said that pretty pretty much that we're on our own more than 200 homeowners in Manville have received buyouts over the last 20 plus years and about 10 more have used private funds to elevate their homes anyone who wants to build a new home in a flood plain will have to follow strict guidelines when the rules are adopted in early July Breakaway walls on the first floor so that flood waters come through people are not trapped inside the water can move freely you won't be able to have bedrooms or livable space on the first floor you can have a garage you could have a rec room you could have your pool table um you know you could have storage the rules were influenced by two Cornell studies reviewed and published by the dep they find that extreme precipitation has already increased two and a half percent since 1999 and will likely go up another 20 percent over the next 80 years New Jersey Sierra Club director Anjali Ramos says more severe storms mean you can't rely on historical rainfall totals climate change impacts continue to surprise us and not in a good way it's in a bad way and and we need to be as protective as we can be because this is about people Governor Phil Murphy says as a national model for climate adaptation and mitigation we can no longer afford to depend on 20th century data to meet 21st century challenges this rules formation and upcoming adoption testify to our commitment to rely on the most up-to-date science and robust stakeholder engagement to inform our most crucial policy decisions these rules won't be applied to any development projects that have already begun a late change to the rules has grandfathered in these projects after a push from the business Community it makes a difference with an accurate project um has to start over from scratch and you know go back and redesign and get all new permits and hopefully your financing is still there hopefully it's still economically viable to do that these new rules will take effect the first week of July when the government adds them to the New Jersey register for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]