Brevard City Council Monday found itself caught between efforts to help residents of a mobile home park on Duck’s Drive rebuild their homes following flooding on Sept. 27 and requirements related to the city’s involvement in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.
As a general rule, building within floodplains and flood hazard areas has been discouraged by local governments since 1974. The city of Brevard has participated in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program since 1978 and in 1992 adopted higher floodplain management standards allowing property owners to qualify for an additional 10% discount on government-backed flood insurance.
In 2009 city officials began requiring structures built within a floodplain to be elevated at least 2 feet above base flood elevations. Complying with the national flood insurance standards is required with many applications for federal FEMA grants designated to assist homeowners with repairs.
The recent flooding of the French Broad River and the impact along Duck’s Drive and work by volunteers to rebuild flood-damaged homes brought the issue into sharper focus as initial plans for the city’s Planning Department to be more flexible in regards to authorizing temporary repairs in special flood hazard areas.
However, this raised concerns that doing so could put Brevard’s eligibility for the national flood program at risk. Diverting from the previous application process could eventually result in a property owner having their certificate of occupancy revoked and electrical service to the dwelling disconnected if the elevation of the house had not been raised to local floodplain standards. If the city was removed from FEMA’s flood insurance program or put on probation for violations, that would also result in fines for the 123 city flood insurance policy holders.
“There is a conflict between two important health and safety approaches,” explained City Manager Wilson Hooper. “The first point of view is do we accommodate peoples’ requests to make emergency repairs to their homes and perhaps head off potential public health issues like living in damaged homes or performing unpermitted repairs or do we stick to our previously approved policy of requiring storms that have been substantially damaged to elevate out of the floodplain? This is an important health and safety matter because next time we won’t have to pull those folks out with boats again. Requiring elevation maintains our eligibility for the National Flood Insurance Program, without which nobody in our area can buy flood insurance if and when the flood comes and their homes are damaged.”
County officials had requested the city’s Planning Department show leniency in the grace period for applying for permits to rebuild damaged homes following the September flooding and that was also the perspective of residents of the mobile home park who addressed City Council during time for public comment Monday night.
“In a situation like this where everybody was in shock, we accepted help because we needed it,” said Duck’s Drive resident Nadia Paz through an interpreter, “The last thing we thought about was asking for permits. We wanted to get our houses built again. We didn’t think about the protocol … People were not just remodeling their houses because they wanted to. People were doing this because it was an emergency situation.”
“I need you to put your hands on your hearts to give us permission so that my husband can rebuild everything again, because we lost everything,” said Duck’s Drive resident Natalia Vega through an interpreter while holding her two young children. “I need help because right now we are staying at a vacation rental and need to be out of there by next week.”
“When the waters and the wind rushed in, it didn’t look for a permit. It didn’t care what language you spoke or what financial status you were in. It hit us all,” said Emiliano Paz, who has lived in the mobile home park for more than 20 years. “What touched a lot of people’s hearts in this community is that there were volunteers from all over the country who came to help us. They did it out of a feeling of camaraderie and they did it without asking anything in return. They brought materials and they came to help. I understand there are protocols that need to be followed, but we couldn’t wait three weeks or four weeks to rebuild. Winter is coming and things are getting cold. With everything that we lost, the last thing on our minds was ‘What is the protocol?’ because what would be the protocol? This was a natural disaster and we didn’t know.”
“These people are willing to go by those requirements, we just need time,” added El Centro Executive Director Yesica Miranda. “Trust me, I know these families. They have worked for many years and cannot go to the bank and ask for a loan like everybody else because of different situations, but I can tell you that they will comply and lift the trailers once they have the money to do it.”
“These are resilient people,” stressed mobile park owner Jim Hannen. “To everyone who has come out and helped with our situation to pound a nail or to bring food and provisions, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Hooper suggested modelling changes to the existing procedures based on what officials in Craven County did in response to Hurricane Florence in 2018 where officials required an estimate from a licensed general contractor or deign professional that calculated the cost of minimal repairs and elevating the structure be made within one year of the building permit application.
“We’re the floodplain administrator. Therefore it’s our responsibility to comply with the NFIP program that requires the elevation immediately before a permit is issued,” said City Attorney Mack McKeller. “It would be something temporary to address an emergency situation and anything we do to pull it away from that makes it more likely to violate the NFIP program and causes us to be put on probation or be removed from the program altogether, which then has unintended consequences of having all the people who currently have flood insurance removed from the program. That means their mortgages are then in default and their houses go away.”
Not wanting to approach that extreme outcome, council members unanimously voted to allow city staff to deny issuing any building permits with costs that exceed 50% of the value of the home or repair work deemed beyond the state’s provisions specified in the state’s Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power program established after Hurricane Florence.
The revised plan will allow applicants one year to provide at least two documented attempts to elevate the property within the floodplain such as a contractor’s estimate for raising the structure, an application for a grant to pursue elevating the structure or a loan application to fund work to raise the house.
“Being an architect and working with builders and contractors right now, there is no reasonable timeline where all of these homes will be able to get those estimates in a fashion that will not damage their homes further if they wait around,” said Councilman Lauren Wise. “Ultimately, I think we have to do this provision instead of waiting for the full FEMA requirements.”
“There may be other reasons why people are applying for that immediately,” said Councilman Aaron Baker. “They may be getting assistance from nonprofit agencies or other means.”
“Those would qualify,” Hooper said. “The way I see it, one year you show us your licensed general contractor quote in one hand and your application to FEMA or Habitat for Humanity or to a bank to do it in the other.”
With the revisions to the process approved, Hooper said new building permit applications would begin being accepted Tuesday by the Planning Department.
Jonathan Rich can be reached at (828) 862-5747 or via email at jrich@transylvaniatimes.com.
