VBT to help residents hit by FEMA floodplain insurance mandate

Reacting to wails of woe from residents targeted for costly flood insurance in the newly revised FEMA floodplain maps, on Tuesday the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees approved a quickly assembled plan to help.

The board also approved an expenditure of $7,100 to pay for surveys by engineers Wade Trim to determine the elevation of homes on some 58 targeted properties.

Sumpter Township recently held an emergency meeting on the floodplain maps and laid out a plan to help the homeowners, with the township and Hennessey engineers splitting most of the cost.

At Monday’s work-study session of the VBT board, mention was made of the story in the Independent on Sumpter’s floodplain plans and questions were asked why VBT didn’t move faster to help.

Over the past few weeks, residents throughout Southeastern Michigan started getting letters from their mortgage companies and banks saying if they didn’t buy flood insurance within 45 days, the institutions would buy the insurance for them and add it to their mortgages. Premiums were estimated at up to $2,000.

The banks, in turn, were being pressured by the federal government that insures their funds.

Many properties which weren’t in floodplains in the past, now are in floodplains. Homeowners said the value of their property immediately dropped with the designation.

Of the VBT 529 parcels identified as touching the floodplains, 75% are expected to be relieved of the flood insurance requirement as a result of aerial photograph analysis by Wade Trim. This will require a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) which Wade Trim will prepare for a cost of $175 and file electronically.

Twenty percent are expected to be relieved of the flood insurance requirement as a result of a Wade Trim survey of the lowest part of the primary residence on the property and comparing that to the flood elevation. This, too, needs a LOMA for $175.

Five percent of the targeted properties are expected to have to buy flood insurance, but, since VBT is not a participating community in the National Flood Insurance Program, that was not possible for the homeowners.

The township is in the process of applying to the federal government for participation in the nation program, so the less-expensive flood insurance will be available and residents won’t have to pay the expensive rates charged by mortgage lenders.

Meanwhile, the township is sending letters to all 529 of the parcels identified on the floodplain map giving them the options for surveys and LOMAs.