New Jersey's coastal land use regulations are much more lenient than other states. Owners of coastal developments possess unique rights to rebuild in the wake of storms, even if their property is located in a precarious flood zone. Rebuilding in the same dangerous areas means that the next storm will again destroy the properties, people will be hurt, and the same misery we saw from Sandy will happen again. Taxpayers should not be repeatedly subject to the cost of rebuilding properties located in unsafe areas. Conditioning disaster funding on developing safe land use policies will reduce the likelihood of future storm-inflicted devastation and future costs for taxpayers.



