The Christie Administration yesterday announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded New Jersey a nearly $900,000 Regional Coastal Resilience Grant to help communities in 15 municipalities in northeastern Monmouth County develop a regional plan to address the impacts of coastal hazards and storm surge.
The planning project, called New Jersey Fostering Regional Adaptation through Municipal Economic Scenarios (NJ FRAMES), partners the Department of Environmental Protection’s Coastal Management Program with the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR), the Louis Berger Group, the Rutgers Climate Institute and the Borough of Oceanport as the representative of the Two River Council of Mayors.
Project partners will use a scenario-based approach to help the Two Rivers Council determine and understand the range of costs and benefits of planning resiliency decisions in communities surrounding the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers.
The mayors of these communities seek to take a regional approach to hazard mitigation by coordinating regional projects that build on existing protections in each of their towns: Eatontown, Fair Haven, Highlands, Little Silver, Long Branch, Middletown, Monmouth Beach, Ocean Township, Oceanport, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright, Shrewsbury Borough, Tinton Falls and West Long Branch.