Flood-Prone Neighborhoods Seek Blue Acres Buyouts

Sherri McRae is looking for a way out.

Irene she could handle. The 2011 hurricane brought water to her doorstep, but the Woodbridge resident and her family made it through with only minor flood damage to their Claire Avenue home.

Hurricane Sandy was a different story. 

The finished basement and all of its contents are gone, along with the family's two cars, and now McRae is facing the proposition of having to elevate her home or face rising insurance premiums. It's not ideal, she said, but maybe moving out really is the best alternative.

McRae and about 150 other Woodbridge residents gathered at a local church Tuesday night to find out information about the state's Blue Acres program, about selling their homes in what has fast become a repetitive loss area and moving on.

"It's so sad," McRae said. "We love our home but when we purchased it we didn't know we were in a flood zone, we didn't know this would happen. I'm just thankful there are people who want to help us."

Blue Acres is a program designed to allow the state to purchase properties in flood-prone areas and convert them to open space. Though the program has been in demand for years, especially in low-lying neighborhoods throughout the state that experience regular flooding, it has routinely run out of available funds to purchase wide swaths of land.

Until now.

Following Sandy, $300 million in federal aid has been earmarked for the program and should allow New Jersey to purchase as many as 1,300 homes in repetitive loss areas.

Already the state has agreed to buy 138 properties in Sayerville and another 76 in South River. Now, it appears, it's Woodbridge's turn.

"The right thing to do is for people to get out of harm's way, stop suffering from constant flooding," Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac said. "Apply for the buyout; take the buyout, and hopefully move some place else in Woodbridge."

So far, 68 families Woodbridge families have applied to the Blue Acres program with likely dozens more expected over the next month or so. From there, representatives with New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - the department that manages the buyout program - will move on to Old Bridge, and several other priority communities that have been identified.

Blue Acres is never mandatory, officials stressed at Tuesday's meeting, and homeowners must opt in if they want to participate, but the time to make what could be a life changing decision is dwindling. There aren't too many options: take the buyout, uproot your family and move to an area without flooding, or stay in your home and hope against better judgement that the storms of recent years aren't part of a worsening climate condition.

"This is just the most emotional, highly charged subject we can talk about," Rich Boornazian, assistant commissioner of natural and historic resources with NJDEP told the standing room-only crowd. "In some cases, we're talking about you giving up your homes."

When Gov. Chris Christie first announced his intention to see the Blue Acres program purchase some Sandy-damaged homes, he indicated that, to work, entire neighborhoods needed to agree to the plan. One or two houses along a block would not suffice, he said.   

The state has softened is position in regards to what it calls the checkerboard effect. Now, Boornazian said, if you want to sell your home to the state but your neighbor doesn't, it no longer matters. If the state agrees to purchase your home, that's all you need to worry about. Purchasing entire clusters helps aid in flood mitigation, he said, but at this point it's more important to clear out those willing to leave than to force them to remain in flood-prone neighborhoods because of stubborn neighbors.

Boornazian said the process from start to finished could take as little as three months. And while some Woodbridge residents are still displaced following Sandy, it's still exceptionally fast for government response, he said. Once residents who have applied and are eligible for Blue Acres are given an offer they have a month to decide whether to take it and walk away, or reject it and stay put.

The buyout totals are based on pre-Sandy evaluations, he said, and while that's good news for homeowners still rebuilding or facing high insurance costs, it may not be the best offer for those upside down on their mortgages or those in other financial straights. 

But then again, this might be the best offer out there.