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Wrightsville Beach
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Town to appeal Harbor Island flood zones

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Wrightsville Beach will appeal FEMA’s preliminary flood zone maps in an attempt to secure a lower-risk flood zone — and lower flood insurance rates — for Harbor Island.

The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted Sept. 10 to appeal FEMA’s maps after results from an independent study found most of Harbor Island should be in the lower-risk AE zone rather than the highest-risk VE zone.

Officials and residents questioned FEMA’s maps because, while inland Harbor Island was labeled VE, beachfront properties were designated AE. Earlier this year, the town hired coastal engineering firm Advanced Technology and Management to perform its own flood zone study using a more detailed approach than FEMA.

“Ninety percent of the island, we believe, should be in the AE zone,” ATM coastal engineer Heath Hansell told the board.

A lower-risk flood zone will benefit both those who own property and those hoping to build.

“The folks that own property in town will see decreases in their flood insurance,” town manager Tim Owens said.

Developers constructing new buildings will have fewer building restrictions, especially for commercial properties.

Businesses in a VE zone must be elevated on stilts as high as 11 or 12 feet, but businesses in an AE zone can be constructed on the ground, director of planning and parks Tony Wilson said.

“For businesses only — not residential units — they have the opportunity to flood proof the building,” he said Sept. 8. “Let’s say they didn’t want to build on pilings, if they can engineer a design to be flood-proof they could build on the ground.”

That flexibility is valuable to those trying to build successful commercial or mixed-use developments that meet the town’s 40-foot height limit, an issue that has hindered multiple projects this year.

ATM’s study moved Harbor Island into a lower-risk flood zone by challenging FEMA’s ground elevation data and predicted wave action during a hurricane.

Because the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, FEMA’s contractor, maps large swaths of land, it can’t take into account vegetation or structures that might block waves.

“There’s tons of buildings on Harbor Island,” Hansell said. “When FEMA does mapping, they assume none of that’s there, so it lets waves go over Wrightsville Beach a lot easier.”

FEMA would likely have to yield to the more specific topographic data ATM gathered, FMP outreach coordinator Randy Mundt said during a Sept. 9 phone interview.

“What you see in this case is that [ATM’s] engineer is adding more detail to our model,” he said. “We’ll make an assumption but our assumption can be refined or challenged, essentially.”

FMP engineer Tom Langan said FEMA and the FMP will both review the town’s appeal. If they grant the appeal, Wrightsville Beach residents and leaders will have another chance to review the revised maps, and then FEMA will set a date for the maps to become effective.

“I would say the maps would take effect December 2016, or January 2017, just ball-parking it,” Langan said.

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