Have you ever been told you needed flood insurance just before the closing on a loan?
Depending on where your property is, and what experiences you may have had, this could be a rather interesting topic.
All municipalities throughout the entire country are required to adopt Federal Floodplain regulations.
The obvious intent is to minimize, preferably prevent, flood damage to buildings or property.
It is also to prevent flood waters from being diverted onto adjoining properties or increasing the potential of flood water.
These Federally mandated regulations have been around for a long time—since the mid 1980’s—and are administered by the local municipality.
The language and criteria were developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
All municipalities have Flood Plain maps, prepared by FEMA.
Some towns and villages have wonderful maps, very detailed, clear and surprisingly accurate.
Other towns are not so good.
The Town of Webb falls into that “not-so-good” category.
The original information to create flood plain maps was gathered in the 1970s.
The greater the population of an area, the greater the number of buildings in an area, the better the maps… because more people and buildings were being served.
In areas of less population, thus fewer buildings, the maps have never really been improved.
The obvious reason is the cost of providing the mapping.
It is not cheap.
The Town of Webb’s flood plain maps were primarily developed by the use of topographical maps.
They used generally accepted practices of calculating potential runoff (quantity and velocity), which direction it will run and how the lakes and rivers will rise as a result.
The very nature of the Adirondacks makes it challenging to accurately map the entire area.
Nor is that degree of accuracy truly needed.
The areas of concern are the developed, or able to be developed, areas primarily around lakes and river corridors.
Some of the lakes have controlled levels, such as the Fulton Chain of Lakes regulated by the dam in Old Forge.
The lake level will not get any higher than 1,708.9 feet above sea level, which is the highest point of the dam.
Stillwater Reservoir is another regulated body of water, and the top of the dam there is 1,679.3 feet above sea level.
Some of the other unregulated lakes have been documented by history and/or a growing number of independent engineering reports for private property owners to determine what the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) is.
Examples are Big Moose Lake at 1,826.5, Upper Twin Pond at 1711.0, Rondaxe Lake at 1,727.9, Woodhull Lake at 1,879.9, and Lake Easka at 1,750.4.
Soooooo… what does all this stuff mean?
FEMA (now Home Land Security) with the cooperative help of the NY DEC is slowly doing audits (for lack of a better term) of municipalities to make sure the regulatory requirements are being met.
This will be a daunting task as potentially hundreds of properties are involved.
Most will have appropriate records or documentation to show no violation was created.
At the same time, some may be not so easy.
As much as the town is working with FEMA and DEC on the “old” stuff, we need to be sure on the new stuff.
If your property is on a lake or a river, expect as part of the building permit application not only plans, specs and surveys showing locations, but also the identification of where the Flood Plain BFE is on the property relative to the building or project site.
And if you have had a project along a lake or river, you may expect a phone call to schedule a time for this office to visit and review the issue.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, this may include properties built, added to, or even altered back into the 1980s.