For fifty years, New Jersey’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) has been protecting coastal resources and guiding development patterns along the shoreline. To commemorate that anniversary, this project sought to understand the law’s history to inform conversations about its impact, where it stands today and how it can be used to address current and future challenges. CAFRA’s history has mirrored 50 years of evolving public concerns including coastal industrial development and environmental impacts, and it contains threads that lead straight to present-day issues, including coastal retreat and the ever-sensitive issue of regulatory jurisdiction with regard to local land use. Forming the keystone of a suite of coastal laws and regulations making up New Jersey’s federally approved Coastal Management Program (CMP), CAFRA established a mandate for coastal planning as well as a state permitting approval process for development in coastal areas.
Read more about the history of CAFRA in this week’s blog written by MCRP student Will Parker