New flood maps approved for western Craven County [Sun Journal, New Bern, N.C.]

March 20--The western part of Craven County adjacent to Lenoir County has a new flood insurance rate map for the first time since July 2004.

Craven County Planner Jason Frederick presented the maps to Craven County Board of Commissioners Monday.

"North Carolina likes to err on the side of caution," he said, and the revision comes with new technology and is more precise. "The changes are not that dramatic; there is less property involved, and the changes are not as extreme as before."

And the board approved them in fact and apparently in principle, although it appeared they had little choice.

Frederick and Stacey Bobbitt with N.C. Department of Emergency Management mapping said that, as a participant in the National Flood Insurance program, doing so is required. Not approving the maps would result in suspension from the program, which would mean no new flood insurance plans could be sold and no existing policies could be renewed.

Frederick had a PowerPoint with detailed information that showed up well on the screen, but in the printouts, it was difficult to tell exactly which lots changed.

In the next 30 days, Bobbitt said, the state will have "new user-friendly maps" on its website for 50 of the state's 100 counties, including Craven.

"We spent a lot of years developing these point-and-click, on-demand, rather than PDF maps," she said. "They will do base flood elevation for a particular property" and are being so well accepted that the group will do Virginia and Alabama's websites.

Following questions from Commissioner Steve Tyson, a Realtor, Bobbitt said, "The maps are good; they give a general ideal of elevation, but they are not surveyor grade."

"Flood insurance is changing," she said. With the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, "they are getting rid of subsidized rates for second homes. A lot of things are changing because of Katrina and Sandy."

Those two hurricanes struck and damaged densely populated areas including shorelines, which included a lot of high-end second homes.

Commissioner Jeff Taylor, who's District 2 includes the areas of the redrawn maps, asked how a property owner can appeal a map designation if there is disagreement with the elevation.

"It is too late for an appeal," Bobbitt said. "They can apply for a letter of map change. For that, they need the elevation certified."

Bobbitt said maps of the entire county will be updated in 2014 along with the rest of coastal North Carolina beginning with New Hanover County in November 2013, Bobbitt said. That update will use new terrain data.

Asked by Tyson whether compliance and flood insurance rates for structures would be grandfathered under the new maps, Bobbitt said, "If they were built compliant, they will still be compliant" but could be in a different rate group.

Craven County Assistant Planning Director Chad Strawn said Craven County property owners may be in better shape because the county code was written to a higher standard, adding an extra two feet of protection.

Tyson made the motion to approve the maps, seconded by Taylor. It was approved unanimously.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.

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