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New flood maps may prompt higher standards
(by Sue Reid - August 11, 2010)
New flood maps may prompt higher standards
By SUE REID
Solon City Council's public works committee referred to the engineering and law departments updated codes for the city's flood-damage-reduction ordinance for review.
City Engineer John J. Busch said in a memo to the committee that the city received new preliminary flood-hazard maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in September 2008. FEMA recently completed a multi-year project that re-examined Cuyahoga County flood zones and developed detailed, digital flood-hazard maps as part of the map modernization process, he said. The city has been informed that the new maps will become effective Dec. 3.
As part of the modernization process, the city will need to update its flood-prevention ordinance and has until Dec. 3 to do so to meet the minimum requirements of the new National Flood Insurance Program regulations. The new ordinance was drafted with help from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources approved model and with consultation from the Chagrin River Watershed Partners. The partners have added additional "higher standards" to the new ordinance model.
Amy Brennan, executive director of the watershed partners, who was in attendance at the meeting, highlighted some of the higher standards for the committee. One involves the recommendation for compaction standards with regards to fill, she said. "Right now, there are no standards." Another higher standard addresses the area of foundation design, ensuring that the structure is designed in a way that the foundation can withstand flood waters, she said.
Compensatory storage is also a recommended higher standard, Ms. Brennan said. "If you are going to fill in one area, you take the equivalent volume of fill from another area so you are always maintaining the same amount of flood-plain storage."
Ms. Brennan said the higher standards are not required, "but they seem common sense and a good thing for Solon to take a look at." They are above the FEMA minimum standards, she said.
Ms. Brennan said one higher standard, freeboard, is already in Solon's code. It adds a margin of safety in that structures need to actually be protected or built 2 feet above those established flood elevations.
Ms. Brennan said that FEMA has implemented a nationwide effort to update local flood-plain maps, and Ohio has been doing so on a county-by county basis. Portage, Lake and Geauga counties already have been through this process.
She said there are 96 policies in Solon for flood insurance, some including residents not even in the delineated flood plain.
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