Monroe Township (Gloucester County), NJ Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Chapter 144 of the Monroe Township Code, adopted 3-27-2023 by Ord. No. O:08-2023, is the Township's Floodplain Management Regulations. Section 144-11 records that the Township was accepted into the National Flood Insurance Program on January 20, 1982, adopts by reference the FEMA Flood Insurance Study for Gloucester County dated August 17, 2016 and the Flood Insurance Rate Maps listed in Table 144-11(1), whose effective date is January 20, 2010, and requires the Township to apply the most restrictive of the best available data. State-regulated flood hazard areas exist along every regulated water with a drainage area of 50 acres or greater, and Section 144-11 lists the state-studied waters in Monroe, including Hospitality Branch, Fourmile Branch and tributaries of the Great Egg Harbor River. Maps and studies are on file at the Zoning Officer, 125 Virginia Avenue, Williamstown, New Jersey 08094.

The Zoning Officer is the Floodplain Administrator under Section 144-13. Section 144-29 requires anyone who intends to conduct any development in a flood hazard area to apply first and obtain the required permit, and the Administrator can require a floodplain development permit in addition to a building permit. The application under Section 144-30 identifies the development and land, the use and occupancy, the valuation including ordinary maintenance and minor work, and a site plan with grading and filling plans. A permit becomes invalid if development does not start within 180 days or if work is suspended or abandoned for 180 days, and extensions run for not more than 180 days each under Section 144-32.

Substantive limits follow. In riverine areas with design flood elevations but no designated floodway, Section 144-21 bars new construction, substantial improvement or fill unless an engineer shows the cumulative effect will not raise the design flood elevation more than 0.2 foot at any point in the community. Section 144-22 requires an engineer's certification of no increase in the base flood level before any floodway encroachment. Section 144-25 prohibits development in riparian zones, 50 to 300 feet wide, unless NJDEP permits are in hand. Section 144-23 requires notice to adjacent jurisdictions, the NJDEP Bureau of Flood Engineering and the Division of Land Resource Protection before any watercourse alteration.