{"id":686,"date":"2017-03-24T02:31:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T06:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=686"},"modified":"2017-03-24T02:31:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T06:31:30","slug":"toms-river-still-struggling-with-pace-of-sandy-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2017\/03\/toms-river-still-struggling-with-pace-of-sandy-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Still Struggling With Pace of Sandy Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Damage

Damage from Superstorm Sandy in Normandy Beach, Nov. 2012. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Over nearly\u00a0four-and-a-half years, less than two-thirds of homes considered \u201csubstantially damaged\u201d during Superstorm Sandy have been rebuilt or fully repaired, data from the township shows.<\/p>\n

Toms River officials compiled the data as part of this year\u2019s budgetary process, which recognizes an $800 million deficit in the township\u2019s ratable base still remains, leading to struggles in closing the budget gap now that storm recovery programs have ended.<\/p>\n

In a report recently issued by the township, of the 3,795 homes that were considered substantially damaged \u2013 losing at least 51 percent of their value \u2013 2,362, or 62 percent, have been completed. What makes the situation even worse is that of the remaining homes, there are few prospects of rebuilding in the short-term, which will lead to budgetary trouble for, potentially, several years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re finding is that these are the second homeowners who didn\u2019t have insurance, didn\u2019t qualify for any of the programs, and they\u2019re holding back because the values are going up,\u201d said Township Administrator Paul Shives.<\/p>\n

Shives said in many cases, secondary homeowners who cannot afford to rebuild their homes are playing a waiting game \u2013 holding onto their empty lots (or damaged homes) until land values peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting better, and I think the Army Corps product will be the watershed event,\u201d he said, that will spur land values to increase since the island and bayfront areas will be better protected from breaches like the one at Mantoloking that was responsible for much of the flooding seen during Sandy.<\/p>\n[visualizer id=\u201d687\u2033]\n

In other areas of recovery, the township is doing better. When it comes to demolition permits, 93 percent have been completed, and 76 per cent of those who applied for permits to build new homes have done so. There are currently 450 homes under construction and 329 homes that are in the midst of elevating.<\/p>\n

In all, Shives said, about 10,000 properties were impacted in one way or another by the storm.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over nearly\u00a0four-and-a-half years, less than two-thirds of homes considered \u201csubstantially damaged\u201d during Superstorm Sandy have been rebuilt or fully repaired, data from the township shows. Toms River officials compiled the data as part of this year\u2019s budgetary process, which recognizes an $800 million deficit in the township\u2019s ratable base still remains, leading to struggles in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[268,266,58,267,11],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-superstorm-sandy","tag-ratables","tag-sandy-recovery","tag-superstorm-sandy","tag-tax-base","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/sandy_brick_1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}