Annapolis seeks grant to assist with flood woes; The idea is to lower premiums through insurance discount program

As Annapolis residents brace for another 12 hours of flooding downtown, the city is taking steps to lighten the burden on homeowners ensuring their homes against rising tides.

The city is seeking a "community rating" from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said planning and zoning director Pete Gutwald, to give residents a break on their flood insurance premiums. The program is kind of like a "good-driver discount," Gutwald said, but for municipalities working to responsibly manage their floodplains.

The city has applied for a grant, Gutwald said, that would help fund for a resource position to assist the city in auditing its floodplain management policies.

By volunteering to participate in FEMA's community rating program, Annapolis invites the agency to review the city's floodplain management and flood mitigation policies. FEMA then assigns the city a rating that qualifies residents for a discount on their insurance premiums.

Cities usually enter at a "Class 9" or "Class 8" rating, which qualifies residents for a 5 or 10 percent discount on their premiums. As a city moves up in class levels, residents qualify for an additional 5 percent discount. Residents in the city with the highest rating, Roseville, California, save an average $963.

The community rating program is a suggested part of the Cultural Resource Hazard Mitigation Plan, a comprehensive set of guidelines for protecting the city's historic assets from floods like the one that swamped downtown Monday. The CRHMP is forthcoming and will likely pass next week during the City Council meeting.

And not soon enough.

Flooding Monday marked the second significant nuisance event of the year. Heavy rains overnight Sunday flooded parts of the City Dock area Monday morning at high tide, closing Dock Street and one lane of Compromise Street. Water continued to block Compromise Street late Monday afternoon.

Annapolis experienced on average 39.3 floods a year between 2007 and 2013, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This marks a 925-percent increase from the average 3.8 floods a year between 1957 and 1963. Private and government studies predict anywhere from double to quadruple the number of flood days by 2050.

Former chief of cultural preservation Lisa Craig predicted flooding could become an everyday occurrence in as little as 10 years without implementing the CRHMP, which she spearheaded along with planning and zoning's Weather It Together team.

High tide Monday at 6:18 a.m. was about 1.4 feet above normal, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency. The National Weather Service reported 1.7 inches of rain fell on Annapolis as a storm moved through the area.The NOAA tide forecast for Monday night called for a 1-foot high tide, and then a 1.5-foot tide at 6:58 a.m. Tuesday. The weather service warned of more minor flooding for Monday night but less of a chance Tuesday morning.

The city coordinated with school officials and parents of students at St. Mary's School and Annapolis Elementary School to plan their morning routes accordingly. It's part of a new course of action to direct school-related traffic away from the flooded areas.

The city held a meeting after the March 7 flood and will soon have another to discuss changing traffic patterns to help cars avoid the flooded areas, city spokeswoman Susan O'Brien said. The city is also considering creating permanent high water signs at strategic flooding locations.

Long-term, Annapolis is working on $6.5 million flood mitigation system that would prevent back-flow out of storm drains and high tides spilling over the top of seawalls. The city has contracted AECOM, an engineering firm out of Los Angeles, to plan and design a flood mitigation system. The design process will last until September, said David Jarrell, Annapolis public works director.

The project is scheduled to begin in March 2019 and could be finished by June 2020.

To help pay for it, the city is set to use $2 million in the state budget set for the coming fiscal year and is seeking an additional $3 million from the federal government.

Phase one of the city's ongoing flood mitigation project will include a pump station to house controls for the underground system. After several residents requested more time to comment on the location of the building, the Department of Public Works has extended public comment to the end of the month. The city has offered configurations of the pump station on the Newman Street park next to the basketball court.

Phase two, on the Dock Street side of Ego Alley, is unscheduled pending plans of a proposed boutique hotel and underground garage off City Dock.The contractor will complete the construction in phases, beginning on Compromise Street. Pumps planned for the Dock Street side of Ego Alley would conflict with an underground garage Mayor Gavin Buckley has proposed for the City Dock area. Though the garage is largely conceptual, public works will wait until the other side "sorts itself out," Jarrell said, before completing work.

twitter.com/dtohl

Credit: By Danielle Ohl - [email protected] - twitter.com/dtohl

Caption: Garbage cans on Dock Street are capsized and open to the flooding.

Joshua McKerrow/Capital Gazette