Highlands presents Bay Avenue floodplain redevelopment plan, underscores resilience rules and financing tools

Kathleen Shaw, the Borough of Highlands’ Community Rating System coordinator, told the Land Use Board that revised floodplain rules and new state guidance create a “window of opportunity” for resilient mixed‑use redevelopment along Bay Avenue.

Shaw presented concept drawings for floodplain‑compliant, elevated mixed‑use buildings and said the borough has updated Chapter 21 land‑use regulations to align local construction rules with state guidance referred to in the record as “D” and the “cafe” guideline. Shaw said the new guidance requires an additional four feet of elevation for some buildings, producing a first elevated member roughly 16 feet above grade, and enables four stories plus rooftop penthouses under the redevelopment plan.

Shaw described technical and financial tools to support resilient construction: a site‑specific viewer (referred to in the presentation as the Forrunner link) showing parcel base flood elevation and design flood elevation, a local CPACE financing program to support resiliency upgrades, and examples of state economic development (NJEDA) support used on larger projects. Shaw said the redevelopment plan has been revised to incorporate those design and construction standards and explained that mixed‑use properties will be subject to the state inundation permitting process while some commercial building requirements differ from single‑family rules.

Board members pressed for clarity about how the new elevation and freeboard calculations apply to existing homes in lower Highlands and whether the borough could fall out of compliance over time; Shaw said FEMA rules have not changed and the state’s new guidance is handled by the Department (referred to in the record as “D”), not FEMA, and that the borough has updated its ordinance to remain compliant. She emphasized that substantial‑improvement rules — which trigger elevation or other mitigation only when a project exceeds a 50% improvement threshold — remain in force.

Shaw told the board the redevelopment plan covers roughly 151 parcels in the target area and is intended to attract private investment that will use tools such as pilot tax abatements and developer agreements; she said one early project in the region used NJEDA funding for a multimillion‑dollar resilient project. She encouraged the board to view the concept drawings as investor‑facing materials that explain how resilient mixed‑use development would look and operate in the downtown corridor.

The presentation closed with a note that detailed materials — the revised redevelopment plan, parcel lists, and the site‑specific elevation viewer — are posted on the Highlands website for developers and residents.

What happens next: Shaw said redevelopment proposals will continue to be reviewed initially by the borough’s economic‑development committee and then come before the Land Use Board with developer‑agreement conditions and final land‑use review.