PUBLIC HEARING HELD AUG. 25 ON NEW FEMA CLATSOP COUNTY FLOOD MAPS

The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners will take public testimony at a hearing Wednesday, Aug. 25 on new federal flood maps.
The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 25 at the Judge Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
The maps, part of the National Flood Insurance Program, identify areas of the county susceptible to “100-year floods,” or flood events projected to occur once every 100 years.

The new FEMA maps were developed as part of an initiative launched in 2003 to transform old, paper flood-plain maps into easier-to-use digital versions. Along with the map modernization project, FEMA also launched a nationwide program to evaluate flood-control levees across the country and ensure they met the federal agency’s minimum design and maintenance standards.
As a result of the evaluation, all levees in Clatsop County were deemed non-compliant, and properties on land protected by the levees are now considered at risk of flooding.
When the new maps were first made public in 2007, many property owners and local official complained that they contained numerous inaccuracies. Clatsop County and the City of Warrenton filed a formal appeal, but aside from some minor changes FEMA adopted the maps and forwarded them to local jurisdictions last March to incorporate into their land-use codes.
If the board of commissioners doesn’t adopt the new maps by FEMA’s Sept. 17 deadline, the county could be dropped from the National Flood Insurance Program, leaving affected property owners ineligible for coverage through the program.
The county’s action covers only the unincorporated areas of Clatsop County. Cities must adopt FEMA flood maps covering any affected lands within their boundaries.
Earning FEMA certification is difficult for many local diking districts because they are required to have professional engineers inspect and sign off on the structures, something many engineers are reluctant to do because of liability concerns, according to County Planner Jennifer Bunch. In other cases, some levees in the county were deemed too short to hold back 100-year-flood waters, but raising them to the necessary height would require extensive widening of the base into sensitive areas like wetlands, she said.
Areas of the county most impacted by the new maps are Brownsmead and Miles Crossing/Jeffers Garden. FEMA also incorporated findings from a 2007 study of the Necanicum/Beerman Creek area south of Seaside that greatly expanded the flood hazard zone there.
The result for property owners in the affected areas is more stringent building standards, specifically an increase in minimum heights for habitable dwellings to place them above the new Base Flood Elevation. The county planning division is already enforcing these height requirements for new structures ? in Miles Crossing, one new home was required to be built with its first floor more than six feet above the ground.
The complete staff report on the Flood Hazard Overlay ordinance can be viewed on the Clatsop County website, www.co.clatsop.or.us under “Hot Topics.”