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City of Venice adopts floodplain management reports; CRS upgrade to Class 5 yields larger premium discounts
Summary
City CRS coordinator presented annual floodplain reports and the council adopted the documents. The city will be Class 5 under the NFIP as of April 1, 2025, which staff said increases average policyholder savings.
Christina Rimes, the city’s Community Rating System (CRS) coordinator and a certified floodplain manager, presented the annual floodplain management plan, the Local Mitigation Strategy project list update, and the program for public information/flood insurance promotion plan during the March 11 council meeting.
Rimes told the council that the city was promoted to CRS Class 5 effective April 1, 2025, which yields a 25% discount on flood insurance premiums for policyholders purchasing coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). “To show you the dollar amount in savings… between 01/20/2024 and 01/20/2025 our residents would have saved $1,200,000 had we been a class 5 community at that time,” Rimes said. The presentation included a breakdown of activities that earned CRS points, such as open‑space preservation in mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas, elevation certificate audit accuracy, improved flood warning and response, and public information programs.
Rimes added that moving to a still higher CRS class would require additional activities and prerequisites, including a watershed master plan; she cited the Sarasota County/City of Sarasota watershed master plan cost at about $200,000 with a 75/25 grant/community match as an example. Councilmembers discussed whether the city should pursue the watershed master plan as a candidate project for the regional pipeline; Councilmember Farrell successfully moved that staff prepare and file a watershed master plan project sheet to be added to the Local Mitigation Strategy list and submitted by March 14.
Council adopted the floodplain management reports and related program documents by unanimous vote. Rimes said the city currently has about 2,800 buildings in the Special Flood Hazard Area and that roughly 85% of those are insured through the NFIP. She noted that moving to higher CRS classes produces greater discounts to insured residents but also typically requires additional planning, staffing or regulatory steps.
The adopted reports form the administrative basis for the city’s CRS participation and help staff apply for mitigation funding and public‑information grants.
