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Follow the links below to register for upcoming trainings being offered by the DEP and FEMA! Each training is one hour and awards one Continuing Education Credit for Certified Floodplain Managers and will provide 0.1 Continuing Education Unit for Uniform Construction Code Officials. Local Design Flood Elevation Worksheet Determining a Local Design Flood Elevation involves:
When Floodplain Administrators make accurate decisions, no one seems to notice. However, when inaccurate decisions are made, they can directly impact insurance affordability for property owners and subject structures to a higher risk of flooding. Recognizing that accuracy and documentation were two things that would help guide the decision-making process, a worksheet that can be used by Floodplain Administrators to accurately determine the proper flood elevations was created by our department.
How to Implement a Substantial Damage Management Plan The DEP’s new Substantial Damage Plan Template for NFIP Communities is a plan that everyone hopes will “sit on a shelf” and never be needed. However, New Jersey’s Climate Change Resilience Strategy predicts a 50% chance of a 1.4 foot increase in sea level rise by 2050 and predicts more frequent, more intense precipitation events that will redefine the 100 year/1% annual chance base flood event. Implementing a Substantial Damage Plan clarifies substantial damage and improvement decision-making and provides a path forward after a disaster. It also helps communities assist property owners with consistent communication and predictable floodplain management practices that can speed recovery after a flood event. During this training, the DEP will go over the contents of the plan and how it can benefit your community in the pre and post disaster environment.
Model Code Coordinated Ordinance Rollout During this training, the DEP will introduce the Model Code Coordinated Ordinance and inform communities on how to adopt and use the ordinance, and what changes communities can expect to see from previous models. All 552 participating communities will have to adopt to remain in good standing with the National Flood Insurance Program. This ordinance incorporates New Jersey Flood Hazard Area Control Act higher floodplain standards and required National Flood Insurance Program regulatory requirements with Statewide Uniform Construction Code flood resistant design requirements. In its post-Sandy recommendations, FEMA suggested that New Jersey move towards code-coordinated ordinances to clarify how each of these regulations and the individuals charged with implementing them at the local level work together to prevent flood damage. These ordinances also address gaps in previous model ordinance language noted in a recent FEMA audit and provide more specific information on how development should be designed, permitted, and constructed to ensure compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program.
Ordinance Administration and Model Permit New Jersey has recently developed a new Model Code-Coordinated Ordinance which all 552 participating communities will have to adopt to remain in good standing with the NFIP. This training will provide floodplain administrators with the knowledge to navigate New Jersey's Flood Hazard Area Control Act higher floodplain standards, NFIP regulatory requirements, and the Uniform Construction Code's flood resistant design requirements. This training is more in depth than the sessions that rolled out the new ordinance and will focus on administering the ordinance and ensuring that a community's floodplain management program is compliant with the National Flood Insurance Program. One tool to help with administering the model ordinance is the newly released Floodplain Development Permit. Having and using the Floodplain Development Permit for activities in the floodplain is a FEMA requirement for NFIP participating communities. Recent FEMA compliance assistance visits have indicated that many permits are not actually permits but are notations, tracked on the Uniform Construction Code sleeve. This has raised concerns that key items required in technical bulletins are not being addressed uniformly throughout the state and that key technical information is not being provided as required by applicants during permit application. This model permit is intended to walk floodplain administrators through the permit application, issuance, variance, enforcement stages, ensuring that all required recordkeeping will be maintained.
 
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 From left to right: John Sartor, Jen Koplitz, Mark Lennon, Bill Salmon, Kristin Baltadonis, Jason Schooling and Kris McCool If you are a member of NJAFM, you undoubtedly either personally knew or had heard of Marilyn Lennon, who was both a former assistant commissioner at the NJDEP and one of our most passionate and involved members. Sadly, she passed in March of this year. To honor her many contributions to our organization, we posthumously granted Marilyn our Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her outstanding work in our field and the community of floodplain managers at large. In May, PS&S posted the following tribute which includes remembrances of Marilyn by those who knew her and her brother Mark, also a long-time PS&S team member, who accepted the award at our annual conference on Marilyn’s behalf. We would encourage you all to read the following recognition of the life of this much loved, amazing person Marilyn Lennon, a friend of NJAFM.  |