Rebuilding with Resilience

• identified specified green infrastructure practices appropriate for different Hoboken neighborhoods based on
the depth of the soil above bedrock, location of higher risk populations, and other criteria.
Critically, the Strategic Plan identified potential pilot and demonstration projects for public housing campuses
in multiple areas of the city to target green infrastructure investments in low-income areas. Based upon these
pre-existing plans and the vision inspired by the RBD proposal, the city and sewerage authority are working to
make zoning changes to encourage use of green infrastructure on private lands. 17
Residual flood risks behind flood defenses — The RBD proposal suggested that by building flood defenses
to the 500-year flood protection level, the city could exempt its entire area from flood insurance purchase and
regulatory requirements imposed by the NFIP. 18 However, despite the construction of flood defenses, buildings
behind those defenses could still face residual flood risk in the event of overtopping during severe storms. Resilient
design and construction should continue to be encouraged through city land-use regulations or building codes to
ensure layers of flood risk protection. By combining green and gray flood defenses with flood-resilient buildings,
the city’s resilience will not be reliant on any single line of defense.
Tax Increment Financing — The proposal suggested that Hoboken explore the possibility of financing green
infrastructure projects through the use of Tax Increment Financing. 19 Because of high real estate values, access
to transit, and development pressures in the New York metropolitan area, Hoboken has high potential to generate
additional property taxes with the RBD investments. The city can use Tax Increment Financing (“TIF”) to capture
increased property values (or the tax increment) generated by the RBD projects and use that value to finance
infrastructure improvements or additional resilience projects, like green infrastructure. TIFs allow local governments
to finance capital projects without raising property tax rates or exceeding municipal debt limits. To do so, the city
would need to pass an ordinance designating each area as a “Revenue Allocation District” 20 in compliance with
the New Jersey TIF enabling statute (the Revenue Allocation District Financing Act 21 passed in 2002). TIF is one
strategy that grantees can explore as a pathway for funding future phases of work to fill the funding gap.
CONCLUSION
The Hudson River Project, once constructed, will demonstrate how cities can build flood defenses that provide
multiple ecological and recreational benefits in a dense, highly developed, urban landscape. The project has also
successfully catalyzed interest and engagement from city officials and the public. While the RBD funds will
be used primarily to build protections against storm surges, the City of Hoboken is exploring other financial,
legal, and policy pathways for scaling up investments in green infrastructure throughout the city as a strategy for
managing stormwater overflows and interior flooding.
68 Chapter 5: Resist, Delay, Store and Discharge | Rebuilding with Resilience GEORGETOWN CLIMATE CENTER