County readies new inspection proposal

County commissioners will be asked July 15 to put their stamp of approval on a modification to the existing downstairs enclosure inspection program.

That proposal, in general terms, has already been pitched to officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and they were “interested” in what the county had to say, says Mayor George Neugent.

The county has been engaged in the current flood plain inspection program for just over seven years. The purpose of the program is to bring downstairs enclosures in the county into compliance with FEMA regulations for areas in high flood hazard. The enforcement of those regulations is part of the county’s continuing enrollment in the National Flood Insurance Program. That program is overseen by FEMA and supplies federally subsidized flood insurance to property owners who might otherwise not be able to afford flood insurance in high-risk coastal areas.

The current program has three parts. Property owners who have flood insurance have been forced to undergo a community inspection program on renewal of their policies based on the year the home was built. That phase is currently working with homes built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Planners believe there are about 500 homes yet to be inspected under that phase of the program.

The second phase of the program is an inspection on sale. Homes must be inspected on sale, but that provision hasn’t been enforced with recording of the deed. The third phase is a building permit trigger. When a property owner applies for a building permit on the property, they must first undergo a downstairs enclosure inspection. If the enclosure isn’t in conformance with county regulations, the structure must be brought into compliance before the permit request can be granted.

It is that last phase of the program that hasn’t been well received by property owners or county officials.

They believe homeowners have foregone needed repairs and upgrades to avoid the downstairs enclosure inspection, or have used unlicensed contractors and done the work without benefit of a permit.

According to the modification proposal, more than 1,880 flood plain inspections have been performed in seven years, with an 80 percent compliance rate.

“Monroe County remains committed to the intent of the Pilot Inspection Program and continues to implement the requirement for compliance,” states the proposal.

Planners estimate about 8,000 downstairs enclosures have been built since 1975, with about 2,500 of those belonging to flood insurance policy holders.

Under the proposal commissioners will see July 15 property owners will still have to get a downstairs enclosure inspection report when they apply for flood insurance, usually on purchase. Most lenders require flood insurance to write a mortgage in Monroe County.

“This will continue to identify non-compliant and non-conforming downstairs enclosures, and continue to provide NFIP with information necessary to rate the policies,” states the proposal.

The proposal requires that the Clerk of Courts record the compliance inspection report prior to transfer of the property.

“This will strengthen the intent of the program that buyers are informed of the requirement to bring enclosures into compliance and the limitation on use of such enclosures,” the report states.

The proposal also seeks to eliminate the requirement to obtain an inspection report prior to getting building permits and replaces it with an Optional Limited Amnesty Program.

The amnesty program is “envisioned as a mechanism that will significantly address concerns with the continued presence of noncompliant and nonconforming downstairs enclosures.’

The county will offer limited amnesty to property owners where the property contains an illegal downstairs enclosure which existed prior to March 14, 2002. That’s the date the current inspection program was put in place.

The amnesty relieves current property owners from the burden of enforcement action while imposing on them requirements intended to alleviate future cost liability for FEMA and provide a basis for future compliance based on a triggering event, according to the report.

That event, states the report, is anything that results in the enclosure being substantially destroyed or improved. The county defines that as 50 percent of the value of the structure, in this case just the enclosure.

Property owners will have to apply for the amnesty program, allow a compliance inspection to document the existing condition and configuration of the enclosure, and apply for a special use permit.

The fees will be used to build a fund balance that will repay FEMA up to one percent of its costs associated with debris removal in Monroe County following a storm event and to pay for the costs of administering the program.

The proposal currently calls for that special use permit to renewed annually, with a compliance inspection.

County staff estimates that the fee would be around $40 yearly for the debris removal portion. The cost of administration will, however, add to that total and the inspection fee is currently $300 per inspection, yielding a yearly fee of about $420.

Mayor George Neugent, along with Commissioner Mario DiGennaro, has been spearheading negotiations with FEMA in the past months and hopes to meet with them again by the end of July provided the commission approves the latest proposal.

“People have told me they would gladly participate in the special use permit process to get the onus of the inspection program off their backs,’ said Neugent.

FEMA has thus far agreed to nothing, he cautions.

“We got a feeling from them in June that they were willing to listen to our proposal and hopefully we can go back with a unanimous mandate from the BOCC to support this program,” he said.

There are a couple of things Neugent feels he would like to tweak with the current proposal for modification.

“The state has opined to us that they see no need for an annual inspection. The rigid purchase inspection procedure should suffice,” he said. “That prevents someone having to pay $300 every year to get a new inspection.”

He also wants to suggest that once the fund balance from the new inspection program has reached sustainable numbers, the funds be used to offset the cost of inspections for those properties that are in compliance from the preceding year.

“I think this shows FEMA that we are serious about maintaining our participation in the NFIP and will give our property owners some relief at a time when they could use it,” said Neugent.

“I believe we are on the right track with this proposal,” said Commissioner Sylvia Murphy. “It’s a good plan, and one that FEMA might support.”

The plan doesn’t have the total support, however, of the founder of Citizens Not Serfs, a grass-roots organization formed to try and get changes to the downstairs enclosure inspection program.

Phil Shannon, founder of that organization, feels the county should be seeking simply a return to the rules of pre-2002 and enforce those rules from this point on.

The former county commissions were lax in enforcement of flood- plain regulations, he claims, and because of that, the residents have paid, both monetarily and in angst.

He said if the county returns to the pre-2002 rules, it would make Monroe County just like every other community that receives subsidized flood insurance. And none of those have mandatory downstairs enclosure inspections as part of their rules.

“The pilot program is over. We don’t need to make it permanent,” says Shannon.

Both Neugent and Murphy are convinced, however, that Shannon’s proposal will not pass muster with FEMA.

“In the spirit of listening to all sides, I have invited Citizens Not Serfs to submit a written proposal they would like to see enacted by FEMA so we can review it and discuss it with FEMA representatives,” said Neugent.

What Neugent also hopes is that the county delegation can convince FEMA to suspend the remaining portion of the insurance inspection phase of the current program.

“If they’re going to listen to, and possibly entertain, amnesty proposals, we should take the burden of the inspections off the backs of our property owners today. The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, but they turn steadily. It wouldn’t be fair to have someone forced to rip out a downstairs enclosure and then get the amnesty proposal approved weeks later,” said Neugent.

No Comments »