Monmouth Beach requires three feet of freeboard in the floodplain — two above the state minimum — and much of the borough sits on a barrier spit between the Atlantic and the Shrewsbury River. Raised houses here often have heaters and panels relocated with the lift.
Permits & codes
Three feet of freeboard, not the state’s one
After Sandy put record flooding through the borough in 2012, Monmouth Beach rewrote its floodplain ordinance to require three feet of freeboard on structures in the floodplain — two feet above the state minimum. That is the single most consequential local rule for anyone working on a house here, because it governs how high the building and anything mechanical in it has to sit.
Source: Borough of Monmouth Beach Floodplain Management Plan; NOAA Digital Coast — Building Higher and Stronger case study
Drainage & flood
A barrier spit with the ocean one side and the river the other
The borough sits on a barrier spit with about 1.6 miles of Atlantic frontage and the Shrewsbury River along its western edge — ocean beach and dunes on one side, bulkheaded riverfront and marsh on the other. Much of it falls in V, VE or AE flood zones, which changes both construction standards and what insurance will accept.
Source: Borough of Monmouth Beach Floodplain Management Plan; Climate Central Surging Seas Risk Finder
Housing stock
Raised houses, and mechanicals that moved with them
Development here is mostly single-family, and a great deal of it has been elevated since 2012 under the freeboard rule above. Raising a house moves the mechanical plant with it — heaters, panels and supply runs relocated out of the old ground-floor positions — so on a raised property the useful first question is what was moved and when, not what year the house was built.
Source: Borough of Monmouth Beach Floodplain Management Plan; NOAA Digital Coast case study
