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Center for Regenerative Community Solutions (CRCS)

Rebuilding New Jersey Shore Communities in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

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Center for Regenerative Community Solutions (CRCS)
A NJ Nonprofit Corporation
Rebuilding New Jersey Shore Communities in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy
Originally published: January 12, 2013; last updated: Tuesday, February 12, 2013

This is a special, rare moment, because:

• • Discussions about the future of the shore are widespread; a wide range of issues are being raised and ideas debated
• • The focus of businesses, communities, and nonprofits is shifting from relief and recovery to long term restoration, and the extent of the damage ismore fully understood
• • Some leadership is being shown, even from surprising places like (some) politicians —although much more will be needed
• • The shock has been so great that it is increasingly hard to stay in denial around the issues of sea-level rise, warming oceans, and climate chaos
• • Tough decisions will need to be made, by individuals and by communities, where properties are being devalued by 25-40% and ratables have fallen in many cases by 20% or more

Based on our work through the Center for Leadership in Sustainability and its predecessors, we have more than 20 years of experience in working in New Jersey communities and businesses.

What We Do

1. 1. We plan, fund and implement high impact local projects, providing the capital and expertise to help communities rebuild sustainably—to become more resilient, more self-sufficient in energy and infrastructure, and help restore the strength of local economies, creating jobs and economic opportunity.
2. 2. We build the community’s grass roots funding potential and help to keep local money working locally
3. 3. We apply these principles as a demonstration of sustainable local whole systems economics (sometimes called “financial permaculture”)
4. 4. We bring together experts in sustainability, business development, finance, green building, permaculture, renewable energy, energy and environmental conservation, and community development.
5. 5. Through our social enterprises, we bring together the resources of the private sector —the strength of innovation and entrepreneurship, the power of private capital and of business acumen —with planners, community leaders, and local, state, and federal officials,to make things happen quickly while taking into account the long-run objectives of resilience, self-sufficiency, and sustainable development.

In an earlier paper we discussed the implications for New Jersey as a whole, and the need to create a foundation for sustainable growth in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.1 In this brief note, we discuss specifically the goal —and the challenges — of restoring shore communities, and the role that our initiatives can play.

As the New York Times reported on December 21, 2012:

The big thinkers have emerged in force since Hurricane Sandy. Environmentalists and academics call for a retreat from rising tides and vulnerable seashores. FEMA pores over flood photos, redefining the areas of highest risk. And city engineers and lawyers revisit building and zoning codes. All hope to ensure that whatever rises from the debris can survive future assaults by extreme weather.

But for all the policy debates, the actual decisions that will shape these communities are already being made by individual homeowners across New York and New Jersey, providing reason to be skeptical that any cohesive, unified vision of a rebuilt coastline will eventually emerge. Unable to wait for updated guidelines, let alone far-reaching plans —or unable to afford the new costs they may entail —many families and business owners are already acting in ways that will determine whether those more ambitious goals can be met. 2

Our team includes “environmentalists” and “academics,” but we are not calling for “a retreat from rising tides and vulnerable seashores” — unless that’s what makes sense to the communities we serve. We work with communities — alongside builders, planners, and community leaders — to provide the elements of the “cohesive, unified vision of a rebuilt coastline [that] will eventually emerge.”

As nonprofit and for-profit social enterprises we are looking to foster local reinvestment in the short term in order to profit socially, financially, and environmentally in the long term. And in general we favor an “active management” approach to habitat and natural resources, in keeping with some of the basic principles of permaculture:

• • Learning from nature, and from past experience
• • Creating as well as conserving natural capital
• • Supporting the effective use of ecosystem services and processes
• • Using nature as a model to capitalize on the natural energy flows3

Universally we yearn for the coast with an inexplicable need for its serene horizons, for the endless, timeless rhythm of waves on rough rocks or smooth beaches, for the amplitude—plenty of sand, water, seagulls, seaweed, a harvest of seaworn pebbles and minute sea animals in every wave. Here where the sea is shallowest… there is dynamic interchange between water and earth, a phenomenon often believed to make passions run higher, emotions keener, the sense of well-being quickened. We come closest to our primitive selves on the thin edge, at once nurtured and excited by it.6

Facing Tough Choices

Perhaps, because passions run high when it comes to the shore – any shore –we need to tread carefully. At the same time we recognize that nature has the final say, and that humans are often short-sighted and easily misled. Many will be tempted to take advantage of the situation. Some investors will seek to come in and buy up shore properties, driving up their prices and displacing some traditional residents.

In some areas only about half of the homes had flood insurance, and municipalities may have lost 20% or more of their ratables. Where losses are irrecoverable, we will advocate for an orderly transition to new uses, with appropriate compensation for those displaced; wherever it makes sense, however, we will seek to assist communities to rebuild better, stronger, and more sustainably for the long term.

The classic EPA case study of Long Beach Island7 suggests that there are four possible responses to the impacts of sea level rise and climate change on barrier islands (and similar options apply to neighboring onshore communities):

1. 1. Doing nothing, which will eventually lead to people abandoning the barrier island or the oceanfront property
2. 2. “Engineering a retreat,”in the case of barrier islands by filling in the bay side as the ocean side is eroded
3. 3. Raising the island in place, both by raising properties and by raising the level of roads and other community elements
4. 4. Building a levee or dike or seawall sufficient to protect the island or shore community —if necessary completely encircling islands and sensitive areas

The urgency of initiating a response depends on how a community intends to respond.… Because beach nourishment can be employed incrementally, there is no reason to begin placing sand on beaches that are not yet eroding ….

By contrast, if an island is likely to retreat, the necessary institutional changes should be implemented today.…. By the time island raising became prohibitively expensive, everyone on the island would recognize the migration as a necessary inconvenience.…

If a community is uncertain whether a retreat will be necessary, it would be rational to implement this institutional change as a way of keeping options open.... This approach can be viewed as free insurance: if a retreat is unnecessary, the provision costs nothing; if retreat is necessary, the groundwork has been laid. But the longer communities wait before implementing such measures, the more they will [face disaster and] court challenges.8

The evidence, unfortunately, is that the impacts of rising levels and climate change are occurring much more rapidly than even projected by climate scientists. The time to take action is in the wake of a disaster —to prepare not only for future disasters but also for the long-term viability of the ecosystem.9

The RCV Toolkit

Through our work in both the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors, we bring a range of tools and resources to bear on the challenges of regenerating communities. These include:

• • “Human Ecology” frameworks that allow people to embrace transformative change while conserving the best of what people can accomplish in working in harmony with nature
• • Expertise in a variety of fields, including ecosystem regeneration, economic revitalization, and social cohesion
• • Asset mapping, community engagement, and collective leadership
• • Experience in a wide range of areas in resilience and sustainability, including energy, food systems, the built environment, and business restoration
• • An expanding and unique circle of relationships and connections with state and local officials, university researchers, project managers, group and process facilitators, and environmental experts
• • An understanding of the basic laws of human behavior and interaction, which helps us coordinate differing perspectives and synthesize inspired futures
• • Innovative financial mechanisms, including complementary local currencies
• • Collaborating with other nonprofits and community engagement initiatives
• • An overall permaculture design philosophy, that emphasizes the principles of systems ecology properties/coasts-are-changing-and-governmentneeds-to-respond, where he argues for encouraging people to move, discouraging further development, but noting that “There is no sustainable option other than erecting walls at the shoreline..”

We engage community leaders —civic officials, business owners, neighborhood opinion leaders, and interested residents — in a community dialogue that allows a wide variety of voices to be heard. While we acknowledge that people have differing perspectives and viewpoints, we “listen for” the elements of shared vision and understanding that guide action. We bring world-class expertise to bear along with on the-ground experience —and, in association with partners, the ability to deliver practical solutions. By providing factual information, we can assist communities in developing their own sustainable redevelopment plans and processes.

Here are the steps we currently see as needed to produce regenerative outcomes:

1. 1. Identify the shore communities where we can add the greatest value
2. 2. Meet with other nonprofits, including the Community Foundation of New Jersey, to discuss participation in the New Jersey Recovery Fund and other initiatives
3. 3. Approach community leaders to discuss our contribution to the reconstruction effort
4. 4. Provide research, advisory, and educational services to the community
5. 5. Share with people the overarching ecological framework of sustainable coasts
6. 6. Listen for the community’s vision of the future, and find profitable ways of contributing to realizing this vision
7. 7. Engage the community in investing in the future they envision
8. 8. Identify sustainable economic opportunities in the community that warrant project development
9. 9. Draw people together through engagement in participatory decisionmaking processes guiding the choice of projects that a community participates in developing
10. 10.Provide vehicles through which local and non-local investors can invest in projects that forward the sustainable reconstruction of the community

Attainable Long-Term Outcomes

• • Sustainable and resilient reconstruction
• • Strengthened local economies
• • Increased employment
• • Cross-generational integrity and young adult retention
• • Sustainable partnership community development
• • Increased community wealth
• • Communities that are resilient and sustainable in social, economic, environmental, and cultural terms
• • Comprehensive and evolving sustainability action plans
• • Increased levels of performance on sustainability indexes such as those provided by Sustainable Jersey, ICLEI, and others 10

Impacted small businesses can access lowinterest microloans at UCEDC.com and at newjerseycommunitycapital.org/financing/rebuildnj/.

In November the Community Foundation of NJ announced the creation of the New Jersey Recovery Fund, “to address the long term needs and unanticipated challenges New Jersey faces on its road to recovery”11, with an initial pledge from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to provide $1 million to the Fund.

“The Fund will target grants and low- or nointerest loans to provide flexible support to nonprofits, which are responding to, and have been severely impacted by, the hurricane. In addition it will provide support to forwardthinking communities which need resources to implement smart rebuilding solutions.”12

The New Jersey Recovery Fund is

a joint effort among local and national foundations, New Jersey corporations, and individuals to provide support to New Jersey’s communities and nonprofit organizations that are affected by or responding to Hurricane Sandy. The Fund seeks to address the intermediate and longterm impacts of this natural disaster, serving as a flexible source of financial support to local organizations and communities as they lead and participate in rebuilding efforts throughout the state over the coming months and years.

The Fund will facilitate collaboration among the philanthropic and corporate community and will strategically target grants, leveraging the partners’ deep relationships throughout the state and their knowledge of effective local organizations and leaders. The Fund will support the nonprofit sector and local communities as they pursue a thoughtful plan to help rebuild New Jersey, and to ensure that the long-term needs of the state are being met as effectively as possible.13

The Fund has recently released its RFP, seeking projects in the following five areas:

1. 1. Public Information and Engagement
2. 2. “Reframing the Conversation: Policy Reform to Support Resiliency and Sustainability.”
3. 3. Innovative Community/Regional Planning
4. 4. Environmental Protection and Restoration Projects
5. 5. Community Driven/Participatory Arts Projects

At least two other organizations we are aware of are also mounting major initiatives related to the recovery effort:

• Creative NJ

In a recent posting on the Dodge blog, Creative NJ Director Elizabeth Murphy writes:

We, at Creative New Jersey, are also working to be of service to our disaster-affected communities. Our Call to Collaboration model is a community engagement approach which focuses on championing creativity as the vehicle for developing innovative solutions to support sustainable, thriving communities. Our convenings assemble residents, local officials, nonprofit leaders, business owners, city planners, and others in a format that allows for all issues of concern to be raised and discussed. Our work in disaster-affected communities will focus on the question, “How Can We Use Creativity to Design Innovative Approaches to Rebuilding a Sustainable Jersey?” …

We will also host a Call to Collaboration for Long Beach Island’s residents, business owners, and local officials, in cooperation with our friends at the National Consortium of Creative Placemaking (formerly ArtsBuild Communities). And we will work to deepen our relationships with and support the great work of our colleagues at

• Sustainable Jersey (www.sustainablejersey.com/),
• NJ Future (www.njfuture.org/),
• PlanSmart NJ (www.plansmartnj.org/),
• The Citizens Campaign (www.thecitizenscampaign.org/),

and others as we embark upon our community- building work in several of the shore towns and urban centers hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy.

Leading experts in the field of natural disaster recovery tell us our own recovery will take many, many years. During these early days, we must foster an open and inclusive dialogue among all of our stakeholders and residents in order to imagine a better New Jersey. We are Jersey Strong, and together, we can create innovative policies that support thriving, safer, creative and sustainable communities.14

On October 29, Hurricane Sandy dealt us a severe blow. As we continue to rebuild our lives and communities, it’s a harsh reminder that sustainability is not just an abstraction.

Sustainability is about rising to make big decisions today so that we can have a prosperous and secure life in the future. For the past two years we have been working on a new set of resources and Sustainable Jersey “actions” to help municipalities deal with the impacts of increased flooding that is predicted to occur. We will be unveiling betaversions of these resources at workshops scheduled for January 2013 (see below).

In 2011, Sustainable Jersey formed a Climate Adaptation Task Force to develop actions municipalities could do to assess their town’s situation and then prepare.…

Two new on-line tools will provide local decision-makers with a wealth of information about the current and future resiliency of their communities: the NJ Flood Mapper Tool, and Getting to Resilience: Community Planning Evaluation Tool.

Sustainable Jersey has hosted two forums to present what to expect and how to prepare for climate change and flooding. Participants were presented with the waysNew Jersey’s climate is changing and speakers presented the new Sustainable Jersey actions being developed by its Climate Adaptation Task Force.

Regardless of the causes of climate change, or any policy debates about the solutions, we should all be able to agree that we must prepare for the expected changes. But, because there are limits to the ability to adapt, the actions to mitigate climate change must also continue. Moving forward, Sustainable Jersey will continue to couple adaptation with actions to lower greenhouse gas emissions.15

Conclusions and Next Steps

We are partnering with several businesses and organizations to implement the initiatives described in this paper in one or more NJ shore communities most heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We are also looking for partners to support these initiatives as we implement work in our first community and then replicate successes in additional NJ shore communities.16

Here are the Services We Offer

• • Consulting, research, analysis, and planning
• • Educational seminars and programs
• • Community engagement initiatives, permaculture design, and local resilience
• • Local sustainable economic development—planning, funding, and implementing high impact local projects in one or more of the nine areas of sustainability
• • Contacts and connections with reputable service providers
• • Connecting the community’s grass roots funding potential to the implementation of local sustainable projects —keeping local money working locally
• • Developing and deploying complementary currencies
• • Applying these principles as a demonstration of sustainable local whole systems economics

Victoria Zelin17
Founder and Principal, Regenerative
Community Ventures, Inc.
Basking Ridge, NJ
Office: (908) 306-0272
Cell: (908) 507-3150

Jonathan Cloud18
Cofounder, Center for Regenerative
Community Solutions & NJ PACE, LLC
Basking Ridge, NJ
Office: (908) 396-6179
Cell: (908) 581-8418

“The mysterious human bond with the great seas that poets write about has a physiological base in our veins and in every living thing, where runs fluid of the same saline proportions as ocean water. It is no wonder that we are instinctively drawn to the sea and [seek to] avoid any sign that we are damaging it.”

1. 1 “Laying a Foundation for Sustainable Growth in New Jersey in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy,”

http://deadriverjournal.org/seeking-sustainablegrowth-in-the-wake-of-superstorm-sandy/Rebuilding NJ Shore Communities—2/12/13
2. 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/nyregion/on-ravaged-coastline-its-rebuilddeliberately-vs-rebuild-now.html?pagewanted=all
3. 3 One practical example is using vertical-axis wind turbines in combination with solar photovoltaic panels; many shore communities are in a Class III wind zone, and have good solar exposure. With added equipment these systems can provide backup power that is less dangerous, less costly, and less environmentally damaging than gas or diesel generators.
4. 4 “Increasingly, governments and disaster planners are recognizing the importance of social infrastructure… ‘There’s a lot of social-science research showing how much better people do in disasters, how much longer they live, when they have good social networks and connections,’ says Nicole Lurie. ‘Promoting community resilience is now front and center in our response.’” (Eric Klinenberg, “Adaptation,” The New Yorker, January 7, 2013.)
5. 5 Dina Long, Mayor of Sea Bright, states that “Sea Bright is not gone,” she said. “Sea Bright is its people. I mean the beach helps, but it’s us.”
6. 6 The Thin Edge (1974). Anne Simon is recognized by many as the “Rachel Carson of the seashore.”
7. 7 Greenhouse Effect, Sea Level Rise, and Barrier Islands: Case Study of Long Beach Island, New Jersey - Coastal Management, 18:65-90 (1990)
8. 8 Ibid.
9. 9 For a current assessment by NJ’s most pre-eminent coastal scientist, Norb Psuty, see
   http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/11/26/should-federal-money-rebuild-coastal-properties/coasts-are-changing-and-government-needs-to-respond/ where he argues for encouraging people to move, discouraging further development, but noting that “There is no sustainable option other than erecting walls at the shoreline..
10. 10 See www.sustainablejersey.com, www.iclei.org, and other organizations seeking to develop better tools to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the sustainability of communities.
11. 11 http://www.grdodge.org/about-us/new-jerseyrecovery-fund/ .
12. 12 “New Jersey’s Nonprofits and Communities to Be Rebuilt and Strengthened After Hurricane Sandy with Additional Funding from Philanthropic Community,” Dodge Foundation press release, November 15, 2012.
13. 13 http://www.cfnj.org/new-jersey-recovery/
14. 14 http://blog.grdodge.org/2012/12/18/how-can-weuse-creativity-to-design-innovative-approaches-torebuilding-a-safer-sustainable-jersey/
15. 15 http://blog.grdodge.org/2012/11/21/jerseystrong-preparing-for-climate-change-and-flooding/
16. 16 We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our colleague Matt Polsky of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and others, in completing this short paper.
17. 17 Regenerative Community Ventures, Inc., is a licensee of Unified Field Corporation.
18. 18 Senior Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Managing Partner, Acumen Technology Group, LLC. The authors are also co-founders of the Center for Leadership in Sustainability.
19. 19 Anne W. Simon, The Thin Edge: Coast and Man in Crisis(1974)

Center for Regenerative Community Solutions
8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
908-306-0272 • 908-507-3150 • 908-581-8418
vzelin@crcsolutions.org • jcloud@crcsolutions.org
Center for Regenerative Community Solutions(CRCS)
A NJ Nonprofit Corporation