Community Floodplain Maps developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are used by insurance companies and mortgage institutions to establish flood insurance rates that are used to formulate policies and calculate flood insurance premiums that are assessed to homeowners and landowners for real properties that are located within a designated floodplain. Sometimes the annual flood insurance premiums can be as high as $6,000, resulting in unsustainable premium levels during the life of a mortgage; this presents real life challenges to homeowners! Now, if one does not have a mortgage on his/her real estate, he/she may elect to gamble and forgo any maintenance of a flood insurance on the real estate. Often times, municipalities also use FEMA floodplain maps to establish floodplain and water resource protection zoning districts, with restrictive bylaws and ordinances that limit what one may be able to do with his/her land that is in a designated floodplain zoning district. This could prove frustratingly difficult to deal with, if one has owned the real property for any length of time and paid real estate taxes over the years, only to find out that they are truly limited on what they may be able to do with their land that is designated as a floodplain zoning district. Sometimes people acquired their real estate by purchase or by inheritance only to find out that the land has been designated as a floodplain area. Sometimes FEMA would designate an area as being an AE zone, which means that it has performed a study and established an actual flood elevation. In a designated AE zone, one would therefore have to determine the portions of his/her land that is at or below the established flood elevation in order to ascertain the development potential for their land. In certain instances, FEMA would designate an area as an A zone or A0 zone without establishing an actual flood elevation value, and yet the A and A0 zones have the same far reaching impact on the value of the land just as an AE zone for which an actual elevation value has been established! The good news, however, is that one may file a letter of map amendment (LOMA) or a letter of map revision (LOMR) with FEMA in order to remove their land from a floodplain designation, based on a study and report prepared by a competent engineer or land surveyor. The more we learn and understand regulations, the better we can be equipped to work with them!
By
Azu Etoniru, P.E., P.L.S.