Exiting building on wet land

[Terry S.]

Hi BP:

Recently I was told always to check the state issued GIS wetland map (I am in NJ) before buying any properties, so I started doing that just out of curiosity, because I thought all the already approved and therefore existing structures shouldn't have this wetland restriction, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to be erected in the first place.

But to my surprise, I randomly checked some wetlands on the map and noticed some of them do have building on them, for example, one of which is an high school campus. And the wetland seems right in the middle of the school campus. The campus area seems encircling the whole wetland (relatively a small one in size) as well as the transitional area which is usually 150 ft around the actual wetland and also restricted in terms of development activities.

So how did those buildings got built? Do the wet land restriction only apply to the later constructions, and the ones already built before the wet land got identified will just be left as is???

Thanks very much BP