After Superstorm Sandy, most New Jersey communities were struggling with their immediate recovery efforts and were unable to consider the systemic changes necessary to enhance their long term resilience. To assist them with their long-term resilience efforts, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP) Coastal Management Program (CMP) developed the Resilient Coastal Communities Initiative (RCCI) with a grant funded by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through a competitive CRest award (June 1, 2014 – May 30, 2016).

Under the RCCI grant, CMP worked with several partners to provide coastal communities with planning assistance and technical support to enhance resilience and reduce their exposure to coastal hazards. RCCI was designed to leverage and supplement the ongoing work of the CMP and several project partners who were subcontractors to CMP under the grant, including the Rutgers University Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute, Sustainable Jersey, and New Jersey Future. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission was subsequently included to provide a similar set of services using funds from the CMP’s annual Coastal Zone Management award from NOAA.

Informed by the work of the RCCI project partners; interviews, meetings and workshops with community representatives, residents and other stakeholders; and the review of other state programs and additional sources, this report addresses the following questions, and provides recommendations for possible actions by CMP, NJDEP and other state agencies:

• What are the challenges to coastal resilience faced by New Jersey’s coastal communities?
• What are the policy needs and solutions to address those challenges?