Okay, we're we are recording. So, first let me uh welcome you. Um we are here to talk about uh flood plane information and all of the work um that um Kathy Shaw, our CRS consultant, and uh Mr.
Winters, our construction official as well as certified flood plane manager have been doing to get the everchanging uh landscape of rules from both uh D, FEMA,
um fill in the blank blank of any other acronym you could possibly think of that wants to change everything as soon as one change is made and then another change get happens. and um we're just trying to make sure that we document and get out all of the information to the
public. Um also with us today is Joe Marti uh for Surely Safe. Uh we've partnered with him to help us with um emergent uh weather patterns and a lot of uh resilience work. um he is a meteor
meteorologist and uh we have a partnership with him as well. So when the if you've noticed that there were quite a few um major storm events over this winter and Joe helped us out with um on the beat reporting and
uh doing um a lot offormational videos uh for us. Uh so that's his piece of the action there. Um we have uh quite a few tools out there and our professionals are going to
explain them to you all. Um and first and foremost is our um our flood mapping information from 4Erunner which is on the burough website. Uh you just go to pylonsenj.gov and um can search for all of your flood
information right there. And then we also have another page that is about investing in Highlands for people that want to invest uh whether it's um commercially or residentially. They're you're making your investment for most
people. You know, your home is the biggest investment you're ever going to have and you're hopefully going to hold on to it for all of your years. Um so we're here to help and to make uh Highlands more resilient. And the first
thing that we need to do in order to get that goal is to inform everyone of how we get there. And that's what this meeting is about. Um, and so with that, I'd like to again introduce our construction official and
certified flood flood plane manager, Steven Winters. >> Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming. We appreciate it. Uh, we are trying to get the word out. as the mayor had said, we've been getting a lot of questions on this uh what they call the real act and uh it's the resilient
environments and landscape and along with that comes with numerous regulations, much more stringent regulations. Uh, as you probably read in the newspaper or heard on the news, there are numerous towns that are trying to get the law stopped. But we are
taking a more proactive approach because in the event right now, it is passed legislation on Jan on January 20th and it is due to take effect on July 20th and they are significant changes. Um, so
um, what we did was we have a written handout. It's a shorter version version of what's going to be on the website. Our website version should be up within a a couple of days. We're doing some finalization on uh um some finishing touches and it will be much more
detailed with additional links but at least with respect to explanations of what the real act uh has particularly for Highlands um that will give you a good overview. Uh we did prepare. We went through all of the block and lots
in town. >> So we have a full list. You're not going to find it on a handout. So we made a separate hand out. All the block and lots that are affected by what's called uh what's one of the component components of real which is the inundation zone. There are numerous
homes that are now going to be in in this inundation zone which requires additional permanent permitting requirements from the state New Jersey D. Uh essentially all of the lowerlying areas of Highlands is
going to be in the cafe is will be in the cafe area. The uh which is the increased flood zone essentially 4T increase in the base and actually the design flood elevation. So you're essentially adding 4T to the design flood. Um uh and that's also explained
in detail, more detail on the website once it's p published. And um our goal is to educate to the extent we can the public contractors, design professionals uh as to how to design these buildings,
what to expect, when New Jersey D permitting is required, when it's exempt and not required. It doesn't affect all construction. If your home is existing non-compliant, you do you don't have to do anything to it. Uh it only really affects new buildings. It affects
buildings that are substantially improved or substantially damaged uh or uh buildings that have additions either up or out, increased footprint, stuff like that. Um we also put together a quick QR code
that will bring you to the real web page. Uh, our goal is not to inundate you with information, but it's a link to a document that explains
when the real rule will take effect with respect to projects that are going to be submitted before or after July 20th if you if you want to read more about that. So, um, with that, without overburdening you
with information, because I know that was a lot, is there any specific questions I can answer? Question. So, can we get a new foot that's going to be essentially designed? First of all, it's going to be four plus one or is it going to be 4? Because we
already done plus one design, >> right? So, uh, as explained in the in the handout is there's essentially four, uh, major changes. Currently, the you can build a house in
the AO zones or AE zones, uh, not coastal or the V zones with the floor at design flood elevation. That's changed. It is now 1 ft above designed flood elevation which is actually a good idea because you don't want to flood the
floor out. Structural members can be in the flood zone if it floods but that floor has to be 1 ft above the design flood. That's one major change. The second major change is that you are adding you're taking your base flood elevation. Let's say it's 5t uh let's
say it's nine 11. We can use 11. Um that's good because that's the example 11 >> 11. Yeah. Okay. >> So, if you take 11, >> doesn't matter the way you do it, but it's basically the base flood of 11 plus
the 1T freeboard, which is 12 plus the 4ft cafe 16. >> So, you're at 16. Now, that's not 16 ft above ground. >> No. >> Right. So, your average elevation actually between North and South Highlands is roughly
>> five to six feet. Yeah. So you if you do 6 ft uh if you do 5T the worst case scenario um that will put you you know roughly uh you're back at 10 11 ft. >> Yeah. In a lot of cases that's kind of almost putting a garage not far and
above that. >> Right. >> Um the difference is really like our mechanicals and stuff we used to put we had room for them at the lower level. We're not going to do that anymore just now. And we assume we're going to start measuring and our our 32 and 12 is going to be from our 16.
>> Yeah. B mechanicals and electrics always above your design. >> Like we used to have a room, right? Because we like allow in order to get a garage, you know, we're at 14 a lot of times. They give us 3 ft to put, you know, heater from the ceiling. We do that in a lot of houses. Yeah. >> We're lose that because now we're going
to be actually at four. Maybe our floor is going to be a little higher than a lot of the builds we're doing now. >> Yeah. So I guess we're going to have to find room for mechanical trunk lines within the house, but that may not be a big deal
in the bill versus the truck is going somewhere else. >> Well, there there is um there is a method which I've allowed in Mama Beach, but it's expensive. Um these were mostly fixes. These weren't uh there wasn't a design methodology to this. This was
like oops HBAC guys screwed up. Now we got to floodproof these vents. You can floodproof the vents, but it's an expensive proposition. You got to get an engineer. He's got to design a watertight enc casement for the ducks. So that is permitted. Worst case scenario
in the flood zone as long as no water. >> Correct. >> That's interesting. >> But you're going to have to get an engineer to certify that. But if you're talking about no option because you're at max height, that may be an option. You can't have mechanics below there because then now you're talking about uh
engineering a a a watertight door. >> I'm assuming we're going to start putting a reme-measure. We're going to measure from the new height. Right. >> So now we're going to gain that 3 ft that really we lost in the garage. Right. Regain that in other ceiling height somewhere. So we probably run the
truck ceiling do something to hide the fence. subject, >> right? Because you also now have the regulations where it prohibits you from putting your ducks into non-controlled environments such as the walls. You got to keep keep them out of that area. So,
it's like a double whammy. Um, I don't think it really affects Highlands as much as some other communities where your grade is at 1 foot. Now, you're talking about these houses going up 14, 15 ft before you
even start. >> Um, Most I think you know most of the new builds in now I think are you know they're 3 ft or at least above what they were before because if not you would have 6 ft except you would have garage
so you'd be raising it for >> right and that's just for residential because when you get into commercial of course that's got to be either dry flood proofs or it's got to be open and that's a whole different animal uh dry flood proof from commercial.
So 32 start in your example 32 starts at 16. So we start wherever the uh design uh wherever the baseline >> right >> uh the Vzone the cafes are also going up uh but you're uh with Vzones you know
you have uh the Vzone certifications that are required you break away walls or piles uh so it's equally as um it affects the Vzones equally as it does the uh Azones
the AO's and the AEES because of the 4T increase in the in the height. So with respect to the elevation, it's the same. Um I think some of our V Vzones are um slightly higher than our AO zones or Azones.
Um so it does affect the V zones as well or and the coastal A's because the older maps and highlands you have to go to the older maps which are actually more stringent because that has that Limo line. So uh >> so the newer maps don't have it. Couple
of builders got tripped up before we had taken over uh with some older approved homes where the homes were actually in coach delays. I hate to see what their insurance is and are not compliant structures. >> What if the lot is half in one zone and half in the other?
>> Great question. So if that and that's common along the bay along the river and the bay. If the structure is in one zone, uh I consider the structure to be in that zone. So if you have some of the zones on the bed on the river are
actually in a V zone but the house is not even in a flood zone in that case the property comes up as a V zone. So if you look on forrunner you know we have the public site you're going to see the Vzone however if you see the structure
in the not actually in the V zone are considered in the other zone. Some of those houses aren't even in a flood zone at all. So, for example, they're outside the flood zone, but when you get closer to the dock, the dock is in the V zone. Uh I'm not
sure if any part of the structure touches the line, then the entire structure is V, >> right? >> Yeah. >> And just I just want to interject that everything on 43 is sight specific. So if you look up a property that is there
right on the flood maps you don't have to go looking at other maps site specific is the key question are you anticipating uh or it's too early to know um with the inundation zone are you expecting like big changes for in order
to get the permit from that that part of the permit you expecting big changes in foundation pipes or anything crazy like that compared do what will those requirements work? >> Not really. Uh not with respect to uh the design methodology, but for
permitting purposes, yes. Because now if you're building a new home, uh there are exemptions, but you have they took they got rid of the uh permit by rule, and now they have three different permits. It's a general permit, they have a uh permit by certification, and a permit by
registration. Those permits are automatic, but the permit by registrations and certification are permits you file. Some of them only engineers can file. An applicant can't file them because they're by certification. So the engineer is
certifying that the structure is going to be compliant with the IRZ zone which most structures in home in Highlands are in. Actually, the zone is actually expanded. It's larger with the cafe rules. Uh but ironically that expanded
area is not required to get flood insurance because only FEMA and NFIP maps require flood insurance, not the cafe rules adopted under title 7. So um it's it'll be interesting to see how the design professionals
uh design the buildings. I can tell you a lot of these a lot of the design professionals just simply don't know because I get a lot of questions from design professionals which I actually uh because they don't understand, >> right? But >> but they're going to have to build to
the more stringent standard. >> Yeah, >> that's for sure. >> Yes. Yeah. Uh the only difference is with residential, you can have uh the mechanicals, all mechanical residentials and commercials, the mechanicals have to
be above the designed flood elevation. >> For commercial, it's got to have a float switch to prevent someone from uh going down into a flood area. It's a probably it's not requirement at least not now. Uh we're about to do adopt ASCE uh 24
the 24 version. Right now we're in the 2014 version that does not require float switches on residential elevators. I don't know if the new version, which may be adopted at the end of the year, does, but it's a good idea because you don't want an elderly person getting into an elevator and going down into a flood
zone because that elevator will go down into the water res by >> Yeah, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. ASME regulates the elevators um especially if it's the um 172 elevator
17.2, to which is like a water down residential elevator. Um that that's required. >> They're actually pre-ro also where they used to automatically return to ground level. Now they're pre-program.
Yeah. So, uh what I what were we talking about? So, we have the um >> Did you get one of these? Okay. So, you'll notice on page three, so it adds the 4 ft to the elevation. It creates the higher risk inundation
risk zone. And that's that's the zone if the house is within the zone. And here's the block and lots for the homes that are in that zone. If those homes are in those zones, they have to uh file an NJD permit and and
they have to get certain certifications. The engineers are going to have to or or design professionals are going to have to submit certain applications with the state. It is definitely going to require more planning on the design professional and contractor's part.
And then the third thing is it increases the area of the flood hazard. So, as I said, because the elevation goes up, the area that is under the 4T now
expands. So, you'll notice if you go on to there's there's a um uh question that says, "How do I see my uh flood map?" If you go on to 4Runner and you navigate to that map, you'll see the yellow area that sits right along the coast uh along the uh area where it's a little higher
along the cliff. That area is now part of the flood zone and it does bring in a lot of homes into the flood zone. But ironically, those homes are not required to get flood insurance, but they are required to comply with the flood plane
regulations and the IBC and you know the residential and building codes uh for the uniform construction code. So they basically have to be elevated uh spaced out stairs can only be used for storage or garage. So the FEMA site, we don't want to go there.
>> You can you can still go to the FEMA site. The problem with the FEMA site is their maps are so large. They take so long to download and then if you move them, if you have an older computer, >> your address is not going to reflect D's rules. Oh, >> yeah. The 4ERunner site has the uh the
cafe layers incorporated. The only thing it does not have is the annodation risk zone because there's an issue with proprietary information in the IRZ maps. They seem to be able to not download, but we're working on that. There is
however um there is a map that's going to be on the website that you can navigate to. It's the uh uh New Jersey D map that will bring you to the inundation risk zone and it's
highlighted in blues like whites, blues, light blues, dark blues. You'll see when you toggle it on and off, on and off, you'll see the area expand and contract the area that uh but we made it easier. You just have to look up the block a lot. If the house is in a block and lot, it's in the innovation risk zone. And
then the fourth item uh was that the floor now instead of being at the DF has to be a foot above the DF, which actually makes sense. Yeah, >> it's actually going to push the house higher, but um
>> it'll be measured the same way a visa at the top first floor with the visa at the bottom first structural. >> Correct. You just have to be careful about the uh your materials that you use. you know,
if some of the homes, well, typically not in Highlands, other towns, they're using the the um trust members, which of course are much thicker, that house is going to be pushed up higher. So, if you're talking three stories, you could be talking about an extra 3 to 4 feet
just because of trust members as opposed to say a building that's doesn't have wide areas where maybe you're using full 2x sixes. And again, now we're just getting moving our 3 ft from our garage areas up above. It might make sense to
use trusses to get duct work through >> before because you're you know and gain that little bit extra feet and use that as an area on your ducks. >> Sure. >> Where we before we were, you know, we we were already losing that first before we started to measure. So that
>> Well, we do have the extra uh height >> in the zoning anyway, right? So you get that extra footage in height. >> Um >> again, >> yes, the mean. I believe it's measured to mean, correct? Yeah, >> you got to be careful with different towns because some towns measure to
rich. So, it's very confusing. That's why you I'm used to uniform construction code. Everything is mean. Um, and that's that stresses the need for planning uh for the design professionals and for the contractors. really need to plan for this kind of
construction because if they don't and their project is on a time schedule, New Jersey D permits can take anywhere from a month to 6 months, maybe longer. And now with all these communities in the state, I don't know who's going to
be in the state to review these permits. Fortunately, a lot of the permits are automatic. They just file, print out the certification, provide it to the construction official in town. That's >> definitely going to increase the cost of
homes. >> The the benefits of living by the shore. >> Exactly. >> People, >> they still love living by the shore. I had a woman call me today in another house. She she wanted to buy a house Mama Beach. 1.2 million. She called me
up. She was very smart. She wanted to know what the flood plane regulations were. Says, "Look, this house is not compliant. it is 4 ft below the flood plane and you're adding another 3 ft. She's still going to buy the house knowing she only has $111,000
to fix that home. Once she hits that mark, that house has got to go up. She don't care. She wants the house. So, I mean, to raise that house, you're looking $200,000, maybe more. So, um
Yep. to uh I think I heard you say earlier that the new regulations are going to apply also to an addition. >> Yes sir, which is going to be kind of weird, right? So that old house I'm getting ready to do a big addition on the house
but the old house was at a was lifted already and now we're going to addition. So if I don't get my permits in before July, then the new addition of first level additionally you want to say it's a
substantial improvement in their end. So it's not necessarily the timing substantial improvement. You know when you do 50 usually with an addition and you put 50% on that improved value you nine times out of 10.
>> It doesn't matter. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> What's What's the height? Is the elevation? >> It's uh it's 12. Yeah. >> So, would it meet the new cafe? >> No. >> No. >> It was raised. because it was
>> well if the cost of the home is not a substantial improvement and these are a lot of the this is a lot of the nuances between uniform construction code and these real rules because the UCCC says it's got to be substantially improved to comply but then title 7 says no way Jose
you're complying with the three foot the 4ft elevation and so that house has to go up because it's because the UCCC does say it's got to comply with the most stringent flood plane regulations adopted by the municipality or the state. So, um
I would say try to get it in before the July 20th deadline. These are going to be the the issues that create problems for homes. Also, if it's not substantially improved, then um then it can remain because title 7 does
does recognize the substantial improvement threshold. Uh if the home does not if the improved value is not high enough, then I would always recommend you seek a new uh appraisal and get the value up
and you're really just buying time because down the road like this h like some of the houses we've had homes that were elevated was on the beach. I felt terrible for the family. the the uh the husband did not want to elevate it for a
full story. The wife did. So the husband went over and they elevated the house just to the designed flood elevation and they only gave him like a 6 foot, not enough for the low 11. Well, the flood maps changed. This is not even caff cafe rules. This is prior house increased by
3 ft and her and she wanted to do uh a renovation to the kitchen and that would have triggered the substantial improvement and she would have had to raise the house and they abandoned project cuz it cost almost 200,000 to raise this house. So that's the
downside. And now for resale value if this house is not that the house I talked about in Mama Beach for 1.25 25 has been on the market forever because people are looking at it and say there's no way I'm paying that kind of money and then I got to pay another 2003 300,000
to raise it and I can't even fix it. Maybe we can still go back to some questions but I just want to keep going keep your questions in mind. Um, and I just wanted to quickly go over as CRS and resiliency what was written to the
choir here with most of you but people will be listening to this is 4Runner you know is able to give you the sight specific information we now have a knowledgebased FAQ in there so if you're confused you write your question right in there when it's open you get answers you send an email to flood plane
management it comes to me it gets handled as soon as it comes in um you know We're here to give you as much, you know, guidance as possible, you know, about the regulations in the flood plane. And um
probably the most important thing, you know, public listening to this is your elevation certificate. People move in, they buy a house. What's that? It should be something that when there's a real estate transaction in a flood zone, you want to get an elevation certificate.
You want to buy that home knowing where you are in the context of these regulations. They're vast and again the mayor mentioned this is the most important thing probably the most expensive thing that anybody's going to have in their lifetime. So it's very important. We're trying to put elevation
certificates that are FEMA approved. We're not going to put ones up there that are FEMA approved because it's like going bad. So, we're, you know, we're working on that and we're building a database for it. It's available um from the site that you
could see. We've also, you know, just quickly because we've got some great um shortly safe information to go over, but we've added all the burrows infrastructure improvements. So, sometimes I'll get home, they'll come in, even on the hill. So, there's each boat and they'll go, "Well, where's the
sanitary sewer line?" You know, we can turn the sanitary sewer line and see where it is. So there's a lot of sight specific information, evacuation codes, the zoning map, where's the zoning map? You turn on the form, you see the zoning overlay. So there's tremendous amount of
things that you could toggle on and off. You can send questions in, you know, it's just a great base tool. And then I don't want to go into detail, but I think it's very important that 1,52 properties are in the flood zone in Highlands and we have uh two
redevelopment areas in that flood plane. One is Captain's Cove Marina and the other is the Bay Avenue Business District. That's 151 parcels. >> Oh, it's been for years. Ym Um, so it's it's completely on the
website and I I'm going to show you that if you um let me see minimize this. Okay. And I actually hit another link here.
It's on the Highlands website, but as long as I care about it, Business Partnership additionally has it. It's the same thing. And it's invest in Highlands. And what you've got is um you know the ability to look at the the redevelopment area. All these direct
links, the lots, the blocks, the concept designs, what everything looks like. We are amending them to G Cafe compliant. We're doing those over. But um you know it's it's four runner is here.
So again from here we've got a rotator with what elevated mixed use would look like. Mixed use is exempt from the inundation zone permitting. It is subject to the cafe. So that's why we're
redesigning this. Look there's a FEMA qualified elevator did take residents up. There's 10 apartments for this concept drawing and you've got elevated above the highest um member. You've got the group or mixed use. So, I mean
that's all in here um available for anybody to kind of scan through. So, it's on the burough site. I clicked to this one because it was hidden underneath, but it's under business. When you go to the website for um highlands.gov above on the big ribbon it
just says business and there's a link there. So all that information is is available the um how to apply which is important people like how how do I get started with this it's all on there so um that is a very
important element in in my opinion working for resiliency and CRS and I did work here 30 years ago it's the biggest opportunity that Highlands has to change the whole economic We develop a
structure. We build new resilient mixed use structures. You know, it's it's actually a benchmark for the entire Jersey Shore. I mean, we feel that way. We work at this model county on that. So, with that being said, I want to
introduce um we're waiting here >> who is with Shortly Safe and we partnered with um Joe and Tony Flores, Anthony Flores, our OEM coordinators and able to be here tonight. He's on shift also police officer, but we've worked
with all the storms we've had this year, which is part of our resiliency to let everybody know. So, Joe, I know you've got lots to share. >> Yeah. No, thanks for uh having me and good to be here uh tonight. Um so with the surely safe program we started with Highlands uh at the end of last summer.
Um it's a it's a collection of shore smart uh solutions for municipalities. Uh it's done through uh our business. Everyone that works with us um are here at the Jersey Shore. Um and we're all meteorologists. So we are all trained and you know ready to help you for when
you need it. Um, we help a lot with public outreach and streamlining weather communications. Um, we've had a lot of, uh, significant weather over the winter. Uh, for sure. I'm a snow fan, so I liked it. But uh but in in all seriousness uh
working closely with um Anthony Flores, uh Spencer Carpenter from DPW about um how to best, you know, whether it's to uh um deploy crews out to help keep the streets maintained, um whether it's working with emergency management on NIX alerts, what to put out there. But we're
also proactive in the sense that we're we're answering a question that a lot of you have every day, which is what's happening at my house, right? So, we do uh municipality specific forecast videos. You might have seen them when there's been storms already. They're on the website. They're on social media. I
know the mayor shared them as well. Um, you know, we don't talk about we just talk about Highlands. We're not talking about Atlantic Highlands. We don't talk about Seabbrite. We're talking about what's happening at Highlands. And that's something that with, you know, my expertise and our team's expertise at the Jersey Shore, you know, we're able
to do that. Um, so we also help create um, you know, we're working and we're continuously working on um, you know, short uh, digestible actionable videos uh, that we call evergreen videos that are stored that the town can use at any
time. Uh, for example, we did a winter weather safety video with um, with uh, Tony Flores um that you know the town's you're able to see at any point. Um, you know, we know that videos uh are just the way of the world. Uh, you know,
videos, there's a stat out there that is, you know, people are three times more likely to take action with video uh than written. And we have video expertise. We have, you know, not just with the, you know, with what we're saying, but the editing and the production of it as well. So, we're not just, hey, you know, here's me and Tony
standing on a corner talking for 5 minutes straight, right? We want to make it engaging as well. Um, one new tool um that just launched this week is our title flooding dashboard. Um, this is accessible to everybody. Um, what we did
was we uh we curated uh the data uh that's available to us uh from Noah and the USGS to create a very easy to use but in-depth dashboard about title flooding. So if you go to the dashboard
uh for example, you can see how how many times a year does it actually flood in the area. How many times per month does it flood? March is actually our third busiest month when it comes to title flooding. Um these are all things that um we specially curated for the town.
It's more than what you could see on a Noah site or the Stevens Institute site that are freely available. These are things that we we took every point of um of uh title data at the USGS and Noah gauges and put this into a large
database that we curate to make it user friendly. Cathy has it right now. It's kind of quiet right now which is good. Uh, so I don't have much to talk about at the top, but if there is if we do get into like a nor easter situation, right there on the on the upper right, it's going to tell you exactly what times is
forecasted to flood and how many hours we're expected to flood. A lot of times you might see, hey, you know, we're in moderate flood stage, right? But moderate flood stage might only be for an hour or so, you know, but we might be in minor flood states for 3 hours before and after that. So we do that there. Um,
there's a variety of different uh datoms to use. So, you know, if usually mean low or low water is what we use, but if you want to search by mean sea level, if you want to ser search by NAV D88, you can do that. If you scroll down a little bit, Kathy, um, right there is what we
see from Noah. This is nothing uh that you're probably not familiar with. It's it's a it's a chart showing the forecast and the previous Oh, looks like you went uh all the way down, Kathy. Just >> Well, that's all right. That's fine. We'll we'll go there. We we know what the regular flood, you know, peaks and
crests looks like flooding over the years. So, we were able to find how many times on average we flood and we see how we're comparing to average. Um, so we're right now pretty much right where we should be for this time of the year. Below that, um, is um, I believe that
one is flooding by year, right, Kathy? Below that, if we expand >> number of floods per month, >> average number of floods per month. Okay, so we can see March is number three. Uh but October is that big one you see there. Uh that's when we see the most amount of flooding. Um and you can
sort by minor flood stage, moderate flood stage, major flood stage. Thankfully, we haven't seen major flood stage here since 2022. Hopefully, we know another year that way. Um but it's a lot of there's a lot of different data that you can find uh there. and know you
know what we found what I find as a meteorologist is that you know you might not know that 7.2 2 ft above mean lower low water is minor flood stage. But you probably remember the kind of flooding you had 6 months ago. I'm just making it up. But the point is you're able to do that. And we have the the last really
powerful tool with this is a flood filter. So what I'll be doing in videos if we get into these significant flood situations, but you can also find is, hey, when was the last time we've seen a flood that's projected to be that height? That's something that to my knowledge and in our team, we have not
seen anywhere that has done this and literally just punch in the flood, you know, the flood uh heights you want and you can search. You can search by most recent, you can search by um you can just search for the highest floods in a year if you wanted to. Anything you want to search flooding wise is available
with that tool and it's part of being with Shirley Safe. So, we just released that this week. One more thing, too, and then I'll I'll turn it back over. But, um, in the summer, hopefully by the 4th of July, we're going to have a proprietary flood mapper tool that's going to allow you to see the extent of
the flooding based on the forecast. Right now, you can see the forecast. You can search by by a certain uh tide height, but you can't see both at the same time unless you guys if you guys have seen something, let me know. But we've never seen this. This was one of the things I wanted to tackle. We should
have that ready for you by the 4th of July. Uh definitely by the end of the summer, but we're working on that uh very shortly. So again, appreciate everybody's time and thanks for having me as part of Highlands. I really appreciate it. So thank you. >> Another thing that we do have on the
website is um on the flood information page uh is what ZMLW was for both Sandy and Irene. So that you can when when Joe comes on does a video and says, "Oh, it's going to be 9 feet MLW." You say, "What the hell does
that mean?" But then you can look and you say, "Well, okay, before the uh the buoy broke in Sandy, it was 13 1/2 ft." So, you know, if it's going to be 9 ft, it's going to be significant. It's going to be Irene, but it's not going to be Sandy, >> right? >> So, just to that people always say, well, what does that mean? I don't
understand what MLW means. But if you put it into those terms where are you looking at Irene, you looking at Sandy, or you're looking at something that's not even going to be Irene. >> And so then people can plan accordingly. >> If I could, if I could just hop in for
one second. Um, so a recent example was when we had the noraster in October. Um, one thing we were able to do was compare it to what the tide height was like during um, Hurricane Aaron that we had in August. Um, now we we didn't see all that much flooding, you know, here at
Highlands thankfully, uh, for either event. We did see some, but it wasn't as significant. But those are the kind of things that we're trying to do, right? We want to make sure you're understanding, you know, what the forecasting forecasted flooding is. So, you'll be able to do I'll be able to do that with that, but you can also search
for that yourself. A lot of people went back to what Steve said earlier and they what their average crown payment is which I think a lot of people live downtown >> there you go. Is there any other questions?
>> You know, it's ironic because Google Maps >> actually has elevations but not flood zones only higher. >> Yeah, >> you can find it on people on the like site and then you might be
like what your is. >> Yeah. If you um a little trick is if you go onto the floor on a public site, make sure your uh elevation certificates in the little menu on the
right is turned on. Those are the yellow dots. Find the closest yellow dot to the location you're trying to find. Open that elevation certificate up and on the second page, look for adjacent grade. >> It's the highest adjacent and lowest
adjacent. Uh, Hines is pretty flat and it doesn't really matter because it's between five and six feet. But if you want a more accurate measurement, that closest elevation certificate is quarter of a mile away. I wouldn't recommend using that, but often you'll find one within a block. Uh, and
that elevation certificate if it says 6 ft. Some say 6 and 1/2 ft. You know the elevation's a little higher in that area. >> It's just a little trick you can question. Yeah. The elevation certificate is reviewed by
the flood plane administrator to ensure that it is FEMA compliant. Um they have an algorithm system. So as I load it in, it gives a report out. Sometimes there's some variables in there, but I'll share that. It's heated electronically and
then once it's signed, then it gets uploaded to them. So if I have looked at our properties and I've given you all that they should be in there now or maybe not simply because when did you give them? >> Well you want to get
>> um you can always you can always email me the certificate if you want it uploaded on the site and I can upload if it's not there already. >> Well we need them to be FEMA compliant. Originally we were thinking we would get just all the elevation certificates. We
had trailers and boxes and we were all in there and then eating with the elevation too. You know, we were told the news that they're >> so old elevation certificates like mine, they would they're not compliant
cuz I lifted too fast. They'll be uploaded. >> But often times we'll look at an old one. We have people putting additions on and they'll come in here and they'll bring the evolation certificate that they have. You know, we'll he will
review it. We'll upload it in there. Um just talk to homeowner today and they're finally ready to do their edition. I go the clock stick because you know you're going to have to you know the elevation certificate was deemed good. it was from
2014 but you know now it's going to be a different story with in addition it's probably going to be substantial improvement >> and so it's a it's >> it's complex so my second question is just to clarify I think you said this when we first walked in that the
zone is not is not affected by the indications of just the >> the uh you so residential inundation zone. Commercial structures are not affected by the New Jersey
permitting requirements in the inundation zone. However, they are affected by the elevation. So, they still have to raise to the cafe. >> Well, here's a caveat and correct me. We have a lot of existing homes on Bay
Avenue that people are not leaving. It's in the redevelopment area. They're staying there. the redevelopment plan precludes them from if they raise the existing house up, they can do that. But most people want to knock it down and build something new. And redevelopment
plan does not allow new residential. So if there's an existing residential there, you know, those qualifiers have to come into play. If they're just going to raise the existing house, they may be subject to the inundation >> if it's residential. Yeah.
residential is subject. >> As soon as we get the mixed use like the design process we have with you know on pilings and elevated then I mean that is construed under the definition that you've got in your packet as commercial
and not subject to the >> yeah has nothing to do with the uh redevelopment zone. It has to do whether it's a commercial structure or residential structure. If it's a commercial structure commercial >> or mixed use commercial, yeah, if it's commercial down below, residential
upstairs, cafe elevation does apply. The New Jersey permitting regulations do not apply for the innovation risk zone. We have a lot of developers. We had a session with them and they just think that they have a residential unit that
they're residential and it's kind of a >> a change because mixed use is an official property class code and it is deemed potential for income producing under the whole state tax base system.
So it is construed as commercial. This is a special code for it under the mod 4 for mixed use. >> Yeah, it's it's why we highly recommend not only a design professional but a qualified design professional because you have a lot of design professionals
that aren't familiar with the flood plane rules. You know, they do mostly work outside flood planes and they really need to know the flood plane rules. But as developers and contractors, the better educated they are in these new regulations, the more
informed they will be. Because you don't want to plan a house, submit it, and then find out you have to redo the plans all over again because it doesn't meet the regulations. >> Any other questions? You can always send questions if you get
home and you think about it. Go to the public site or post to the flood plane management at islandsj.gov if you want to get back to There's nothing new with that. >> Okay, >> they already do that. Second take.
>> Are there any other questions or comments that you guys want to have so we can >> Okay. >> Um, stop the recording. Thank you. >> And this video will also be on the website in case you want to refer back to it
>> probably in a couple days. Yeah, >> probably probably by the weekend. We just need to >> That's That's part >> Thank you. Thank you for coming. >> Have a great night.