Maps depicting five units of the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System
Learn more about the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System, which was established under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act in 1982.
Learn more about John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS) were made effective on February 29, 2016, when President Obama signed HR 890 into law (Public Law 114-128). The affected units, comprising 40,798 total acres, are located in Collier County, Florida. The new maps correct errors affecting property owners and add two new CBRS units encompassing eligible undeveloped areas.
The Coastal Barrier Resources System was established in 1982, and helps save taxpayer dollars and reduce the intensity of development within hazard-prone and ecologically sensitive coastal areas. With this most recent action, the CBRS comprises a total of 859 geographic units that encompass 3.3 million acres of relatively undeveloped coastal barrier areas located along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes coasts, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Most new federal expenditures and financial assistance that encourage development are prohibited, including federal flood insurance. However, development still can occur provided that private developers or other non-federal parties bear the full cost, rather than being subsidized by the American taxpayers.
When Congress reauthorized the Coastal Barrier Resources Act in 2006, it directed the Service to prepare updated CBRS maps using modern digital technology. Congress last enacted legislation to update a CBRS map in 2014. To date, comprehensively modernized maps are effective for about three percent of the system. The Service plans to prepare draft revised maps for areas along the North Atlantic Coast (about 16 percent of the system) by 2017.
Additional information about the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System can be found on the Service’s website at www.fws.gov/cbra. The new maps (depicting revisions to three units and two entirely new units) are available here: https://www.fws.gov/cbra/Maps/recently-enacted-maps.html.
