ROCKLAND, Maine — The city filed an appeal Thursday of parts of the preliminary flood maps proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claiming they greatly overstate the risk of flooding.
The proposed maps significantly expand flood zones inland and affect numerous properties, including downtown businesses. The flood maps are important because they will affect where and how property owners can build and also whether property owners need to purchase expensive flood insurance. Owners of property even partially in a flood zone could see their flood insurance premiums increase tenfold.
The city is recommending that changes be made to FEMA’s preliminary maps, particularly in the downtown waterfront area. A decision on the appeal is expected within the next five months.
Rockland received its preliminary maps in July 2013 and city officials expressed concern immediately that it could have significantly hurt development in much of the downtown waterfront.
“Rockland is taking a beating,” consulting engineer Robert Gerber said last year when the maps were released.
Rockland hired Gerber, an engineer for Ransom Consulting Engineers and Scientists, to review the FEMA maps and determine whether there were any errors in the federal government’s calculations of what areas were at risk for flooding. Gerber’s findings show a significant difference.
For example, the new FEMA maps determined that there was a 1 percent chance in any given year that the ocean could rise to 14 feet above the mean tide along with waves of 3 feet or more during a storm in Lermond’s Cove — which is located between carrageenan manufacturer FMC and the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The FEMA maps also projected that there was a 1 percent chance in any year that the water could rise to 19 feet above the mean tide along with 3 foot or greater waves on the ocean side of the FMC plant.
Mean tide is the halfway point between high and low tides.
The new FEMA maps also determined that the city’s public landing, the parking lot in the rear of the Main Street Thorndike complex, and several downtown Main Street buildings nearest the Maine State Ferry Terminal were now in a flood zone.
In general, the FEMA maps moved the flood risk zone in about 100 feet from the last ones, which were published in 1989.
Gerber’s findings were that the water level during those rare storms would be far less dramatic. Gerber’s studies concluded, for example, that the Main Street buildings would not be in a flood zone.
Code Enforcement Officer John Root said that one reason for the difference is that FEMA did not take into account physical features that would reduce wave impact in protected areas such as Lermond’s Cove and the Thorndike lot.
FMC also hired an engineer and submitted those findings with Gerber’s report to FEMA.
In a flood zone, the lowest level of a new or substantially renovated building must be at least 1 foot higher than the base flood level. In the flood zones subject to wave action — which the new maps conclude are much of the waterfront — buildings must be built on posts or have blow-out panels as part of the construction to allow flood waters to pass through without destroying the structure.
FEMA’s proposed extension of flood zones to developed areas means that these property owners would need to purchase flood insurance if they have a mortgage that is backed by the federal government.
Gerber said the appeal process will take about four to five months. If the city disagrees with FEMA’s final determination it can appeal to an independent scientific review panel. The appeal after that would go to federal court.
The engineer has represented eight communities in Cumberland and York counties since 2010 and said that FEMA accepted almost everything he recommended.