New floodplain maps up for review
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POLSON — As part of a three-year FEMA map modernization program, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Lake County Planning Department invited the public to check out new draft floodplain maps of Lake County last week. A lengthy study of floodplains in the area led to the inclusion of some properties on Johnson Creek, Dayton Creek, Mission Creek, Post Creek and Swan Lake in the new floodplain maps. An existing study on the Jocko River was also incorporated in the new maps, FEMA mapping representative Sarah Brush noted.
Notices of the changes will be published in local newspapers as early as January, and landowners will have 90 days to appeal the changes. Anyone can submit data for consideration, Brush said.
“Once that 90-day appeal period ends, we’ll take all that information and review it, resolve it … that can take an undetermined amount of time,” she explained.
When the draft maps are finalized, the county will have six months to update ordinances accordingly before the new maps take effect.
“It is a long study; it’s a lot of effort … we don’t just draw a line on a map,” explained Dan March of Atkins Engineering, the company that worked with DNRC on the Lake County floodplain study. “There’s a lot of effort, a lot of thought, a lot of review going into these new studies.”
FEMA flood insurance is available to property owners regardless of whether their home sits in a floodplain, so it’s something everyone ought to consider, FEMA flood insurance specialist Marijo Brady noted. Flood insurance is a major concern for people whose properties may now be in a floodplain, and concern over possible new flood insurance requirements from their mortgage lenders brought David and Patty Ogden all the way from Ferndale for the meeting at the Lake County Courthouse.
“That’s what worried me, because we are right on the river,” David said.
Though their yard has never flooded, the Ogdens are across Johnson Creek from a floodplain and were relieved to find that no changes on the new maps will affect their property.
New floodplain maps are available for viewing at the Lake County Planning Department office at the courthouse, Polson City Hall, Ronan City Hall and St. Ignatius City Hall.
