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Homewood Council adopts new floodplain development ordinance to meet FEMA standards
Summary
The Homewood City Council unanimously approved replacing the city's flood-damage prevention ordinance with a new Floodplain Development Ordinance required by FEMA; staff said the change helps maintain or improve the city's CRS rating and could modestly lower residents' flood-insurance premiums.
The Homewood City Council on April 8 unanimously approved a new Floodplain Development Ordinance intended to bring the city's regulations into compliance with FEMA requirements and help the city improve its Community Rating System (CRS) score.
Cale Smith, who presented the staff report, said the city has held a CRS rating of 9 since joining the National Flood Insurance Program in the late 1990s and that the proposed ordinance is part of an effort to move to a CRS 8. "At a 9, folks that live in Homewood in the floodplain get a 5% reduction in their flood insurance premiums, and an 8 would get us to 10%," Smith said during the hearing.
The ordinance package, described by the city attorney'reading as a 58-page document, reorganizes statutory authority, defines lands subject to regulation, formalizes floodplain administrator duties, establishes permit procedures, sets floodplain-reduction and building standards, and clarifies variance procedures and appeals. Staff said much of the work to earn additional CRS credit would also include nonregulatory actions such as public mailers and certified floodplain management by city staff.
Council members pressed staff on the risk of losing the current rating and on expected costs. Smith said the city was not at imminent risk of losing its CRS 9 rating and described anticipated costs as minimal, mainly mailers and use of free FEMA pamphlets. The council gave unanimous consent to proceed and then voted 11-0 to adopt the ordinance, recorded in the minutes as Ordinance 28-95.
The ordinance will take effect following the usual post-adoption process (mayoral approval or otherwise becoming law). City staff said they would include the ordinance and related documentation in the city's recertification materials to FEMA later this summer.
What happens next: The council recorded adoption and staff will combine the ordinance with other program elements (public education, certified floodplain manager duties) for the city's CRS recertification effort this summer.
