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Wells Planning Board reconsiders "substantial improvement" rule after FEMA remap; options include five- or ten-year reset
Summary
At a Planning Board workshop, town staff, the code officer and local insurance and community representatives debated whether to keep a life-of-structure reset or move to a 5- or 10-year reset for the 50% substantial-improvement trigger in the Chapter 116 floodplain ordinance; participants urged drafting specific options and holding public hearings targeted to affected property owners.
The Town of Wells Planning Board spent the first hour of its Nov. 17 meeting in a workshop on proposed changes to the town's Chapter 116 Floodplain Management Ordinance following adoption tied to recently updated FEMA maps.
Mike, who presented the staff memo, said the town adopted a state/FEMA model ordinance in June 2024 to align with newly adopted FEMA maps and that the two central edits under review add a market-value definition and revise the definition of "substantial improvement," the 50% threshold that triggers required floodproofing. "The ordinance change itself that happened in June 2024 ... coincided with the update to the FEMA maps," Mike said, noting the maps were the first major update since 2003.
Why it matters: Wells has an unusually large share of flood-exposed property, so choices about when the 50% calculation resets could shift who must elevate or otherwise floodproof structures and…
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