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Planning staff outline FEMA Community Rating System and how new flood maps affect insurance costs
Summary
City planning staff presented the voluntary FEMA Community Rating System (CRS), estimating modest discounts on federally backed flood insurance but warning that updated flood maps and an ongoing flood mitigation project could reduce the program’s local benefit.
Ithaca planning staff on Friday summarized the FEMA Community Rating System and presented a cost‑benefit analysis showing the city could likely qualify for CRS Class 8 or 9 — producing roughly 5–10% discounts on federally backed flood insurance premiums for policyholders — but that those savings may be small compared with staff time required to administer the program.
The Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary FEMA program that awards participating municipalities points for activities such as recordkeeping, public outreach, higher regulatory standards, infrastructure projects and open‑space preservation. Sam Quinn Jacobs, a planner in the city’s planning and development office, told the Neighborhood Investment Committee that CRS builds on the National Flood Insurance Program and “only offers discounts on federally backed flood insurance.”
Why it matters: FEMA has released updated flood maps that will change which properties are mapped in the 100‑year floodplain. Properties mapped in the floodplain with federally backed mortgages will be required to carry flood insurance; any discount from CRS only applies to insurance issued through NFIP. Jacobs said FEMA’s estimate for annual NFIP premiums for a single‑family home in the city is about $18.34, while other third‑party estimates committee members mentioned ranged between roughly $2,000 and $5,000 per year. Jacobs said the CRS discount applies only to the NFIP portion, which currently caps building coverage at $250,000.
The staff analysis, based on interviews with other planners and local staff, concluded Ithaca could likely qualify now for CRS Class 8 or 9 and therefore deliver roughly 5–10% reductions for affected policyholders. Jacobs said achieving Class 6 would be possible only with additional regulatory steps or more open‑space preservation, and that Classes 1–5 are not feasible given the city’s built conditions. The analysis estimated about $1.6 million in aggregate insurance premium reductions to residents over 20 years under a baseline scenario, but staff time to apply for and administer CRS would be significant.
A key uncertainty is the city’s flood hazard mitigation project led by Department of Public Works (DPW). Jacobs and committee members discussed that if the DPW mitigation work — which could include levees or dredging in flood control channels — successfully removes parcels from the mapped floodplain, the number of properties buying federally backed flood insurance could fall. Jacobs said that would reduce the pool of policyholders who would see CRS discounts and could change the cost‑benefit calculation: “If the flood hazard mitigation project was successful to the maximum extent, the participation of the CRS program would result in losses to the city, at classes 8 or 9.”
Committee members asked whether dredging or other infrastructure projects earn CRS points. Jacobs said they generally do not: “Those activities that really do reduce flood risk for residents... are not points‑based activities under the community rating system,” meaning infrastructure that reduces risk often does not translate directly to CRS points.
Questions from residents and committee members covered who must buy insurance, whether small corner encroachments trigger coverage for an entire building and what individual mitigation measures (for example, elevating utilities or raising a structure) can do to lower premiums. Jacobs and other participants noted that substantial improvement rules and local adoption of flood‑resistant construction standards will require new construction or improvements in the mapped floodplain to meet higher standards.
Next steps: Jacobs said staff will provide links to the DPW flood mitigation presentation and the new flood maps and that policy decisions about pursuing CRS would rest with the city manager, department heads and Common Council. “I think it’s in the city managers and the department heads and council’s hands at this point on what we do next,” he said.
