Politics & Government

Township Council Reluctantly Plans To Adopt FEMA Advisory Base Flood Elevation Maps

Ordinance set to be introduced at meeting tonight

 

Hold your nose and vote.

That pretty much sums up Berkeley Township officials' take on introducing an ordinance to adopt the controversial FEMA advisory base flood maps.

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"Berkeley Township will be adopting them under protest," Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said. "The adoption in no way endorses the maps, which we know to be deeply flawed."

The sole reason the council will adopt the maps is to make it possible for residents to receive Increased Cost of Compliance (ICC) grants, Amato said.

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"Many of our residents who are looking to rebuild are being denied ICC grant money, because we have not adopted the ABFEs," he said. "The adoption of the advisory base flood elevations is to make sure those residents receive the grant money."

Residents whose homes were more than 50 percent damaged by Sandy have to make their structures compliant with the advisory maps, either by elevation or demolition. Homeowners with more than 50 percent damage are eligible to receive ICC grants of up to $30,000.

Residents who fail to rebuild their homes higher or elevate their existing properties above base flood levels will soon be subject to extreme flood insurance premiums, in some cases more than $30,000 a year.

Gov. Chris Christie announced in late January that the state would adopt the ABFEs, which supersedes any municipal ordinances. FEMA officials have said the maps are on the conservative side and could be amended before their final adoption.

"We will continue to fight against the maps until they are scaled back," Amato said.

The ABFEs were compiled prior to Sandy using historical storm data and changing topography and will eventually become the National Flood Insurance Program’s official flood elevation maps. Though the ABFEs won’t become official until the middle of 2014, at the earliest, their adoption by the state leaves impacted municipalities with few options moving forward.

Much of the criticism of the new maps focuses on changes to its various zones, specifically its A and V Zones. Both zones, according to FEMA, are prone to significant flood damage during once-a-century storms, like Sandy, with the latter susceptible to wave action.

New "Advisory Base Flood Elevations" are posted to this interactive map. More resources are available on FEMA's ABFE page for New Jersey and New York.


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