In a striking retreat, state environmental officials last month announced a temporary reprieve from a contentious coastal-resiliency rule that would require many waterfront property owners and developers to build 4 feet higher than current standards and still leaves them facing costly, time-consuming permitting hurdles.

“This is a good start,” Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said June 1, the same day a rule-making proposal was published in the New Jersey Register to extend the legacy…