Great News!
The Town of Ocean City has been told by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that a Letter of Map Revision will be issued for the area uptown known as Condo Row.
In July of 2015, the Town of Ocean City and all of Worcester County was remapped by FEMA. Most of Ocean City moved to an X flood zone, which is considered a low hazard flood zone. The Town had worked to establish a dune system and a sea wall that would be preventive measures to possible flooding along the ocean front condominiums and businesses and FEMA agreed that these additional protections lowered the risk for the community.
However, some condominiums in high rose row, approximately 88-116th Street, were required to build a dune during construction. They basically have two dunes, one built when the building was built and the one installed at the dune line by the city/state and federal governments.
When the maps were revised FEMA used the words at the “toe of the dune line.” The buildings who had a secondary dune were then left in a V zone – the highest risk zone. Since they have doubled the protection this was not logical. The error was not caught until after the Town adopted the new maps in July of 2015.
Upon finding the error the Town hired a company to fill out the massive paperwork needed to request a Letter of Map Revision. This would move those condominium buildings with double dunes back in the X zone, a low hazard zone.
This week FEMA announced that they would grant the Letter of Map Revision.
There is a 90 day period for comments on the revision prior to it taking effect.
Great effort between the individual condominiums affected, the Delmarva Condominium Managers Association and the Town of Ocean City went into securing the map revision. It was good to see the community working together to secure a common goal.
The flood zone directly impacts the rates the condominium associations pay for flood insurance.
Thank you for reading.
