Deadline looming for protests of flood elevations

The clock is ticking on Evergreen property owners who want to protest the flood elevations assigned to their property by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

When FEMA issued revised flood insurance rate maps and a flood insurance study for Evergreen on April 27, a 90-day appeal period began.

Appeals are due by July 25 and should be submitted to the Flathead County Planning Office.

Because the appeal process requires that elevation data be certified by a registered engineer or a licensed land surveyor and compiled into a formal objection, property owners who choose to object to the findings may want to start the process soon, Flathead County Planner Bailey Minnich said.

FEMA’s new data affects about 1,000 parcels in Evergreen. Affected property owners were notified last summer of the proposed changes.

The reports include proposed flood hazard information for certain parts of Evergreen. The report identifies special flood hazard areas, which are defined as areas that would be inundated by a base flood. The reports also include base flood elevations or depths, zone designations and regulatory floodways.

The biggest effect the flood elevation changes have on property owners is future use of their property. Owners are required to obtain floodplain development permits for construction.

In the case of new construction, fill material must be hauled in to result in those new structures sitting at least 2 feet above base flood elevation, Flathead County Planning Director BJ Grieve said.

The floodplain designation can affect a property owner’s requirement to purchase flood insurance, depending on the lender’s rules.

People can review their new elevation information either by going to the Planning Office on the second floor of the Earl Bennett Building on the courthouse campus, or online. The maps are posted under the “draft documents” listing on the county’s website at http://flathead.mt.gov/planning_zoning/.

Since the new base flood elevations were released last June, the modeling and flood-plain mapping information hasn’t changed, Grieve said. In the last year FEMA has fixed such errors as incorrect road names. The Evergreen data also has been re-evaluated in the last year, following complaints voiced by residents at two public meetings held last summer in Flathead County.

As the governing entity of Evergreen, Flathead County has the opportunity to object to the new elevations.

Whether the county will do that hasn’t been decided, Grieve said.

He intends to wait until nearer the end of the comment period “to see what concerns are brought forward by the public,” before deciding if the county also will protest.

In that case, he said, the county would solicit requests for proposals from engineers and surveyors to gather elevation information to compare to the data compiled by FEMA contractor Michael Baker.

The appeals process isn’t simple.

“Unless appeals are based on indisputable mathematical or measurement errors or the effects of natural physical changes that have occurred in the flood plain, they must be accompanied by all data that FEMA needs to revise the preliminary version of the flood insurance study reports and the flood insurance rate maps,” the federal agency’s criteria for appeals states.

“Therefore, appellants should be prepared to perform coastal, hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, to plot new or revised flood profiles and to delineate revised special flood hazard area zones and regulatory floodway boundaries as necessary,” the document states.

At the close of the appeal period, the county will forward all appeals to FEMA.

Once appeals are submitted to the federal government, the data is reviewed, Minnich said.

“If it has relevance, they’ll review it and decide if anything should be changed,” she said.

Employees of either FEMA or Michael Baker will evaluate any scientific or technical data submitted in an appeal for compliance with existing rules. They may request additional data from the appellants, FEMA’s rules state.

A recommendation on the resolution of the appeal is then made and the appellants are notified by letter. Comments may then be submitted on the content of that letter for 30 days.

Any comments must be addressed and resolved before the process continues, according to FEMA rules.

After 60 days, if the parties can’t reach a resolution, a scientific resolution panel evaluates the two sets of data.

That panel renders a written recommendation to FEMA that must be issued within 150 days from when the panel is established. If the appellant is successful, the changes are incorporated into the maps and the study. If the appellant is unsuccessful, it can appeal to U.S. District Court.

If finalized, the proposed flood hazard determinations will become the basis for the floodplain management measures that Flathead County must adopt in order to remain qualified for participation in the national flood insurance program.

When the final maps will be issued is not yet known, because protests affect that time frame.

The new maps must be adopted by the county commissioners.

If the county chooses to not adopt FEMA’s maps and floodplain designations, the county can be declared ineligible to participate in the national flood insurance program. That would mean no one in an unincorporated area of the county could buy flood insurance, Minnich said.

The purpose of floodplain maps is to accurately reflect the risk of floods, FEMA officials said last year at a Kalispell meeting.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.