Travis County Commissioners Court
March 14, 2006
Item 17
17, consider and take appropriate action on request to send the new -- that did pass by unanimous vote, right? To send a new fema preliminary flood insurance rate map and flood insurance study to affected property owners and residents.
>> as you know, fema has totally remapped Travis County in the flood areas of the county. Very soon they will go into a 90 day review and comment period. And the issue here is how well should our affected landowners, homeowners be notified about these changes. Fema will publish an ad in the newspaper basically informing the general population of the changes, but that's pretty much the extent of it. We have been asked by our congressional delegation to more broadly publicize the changes in the fema maps. That comes at a price tag, however, of getting notices directly to our homeowners. And there are quite a few that we'd have to notify. We have the means to do that, and we have some letters prepared by the floodplain coalition that we could use as a basis of notification. But once those letters go out, there's also somewhat of an obligation on the staff's part of tnr to kind of work through questions that may come up as a result of those letters. And that is of a concern to us that we may have to hire some staff temporarily to get through this review and comment period so that we can be effective in getting the word out. And my staff basically is spending most of their time issuing permits and doing their day-to-day stuff so there is not likely they'll be able to do that and take on this additional assignment. So we may have to hire some temporary people to help us do the routine work while we're addressing constituents that call up and want to know what's the deal. What has changed. There are also some websites that are available at the city and elsewhere that we can lead people to to see what -- how they may be affected by these new maps. We hope to have them up and at least to the city's website in electronic format so at least people can go to their particular map panel that shows the new floodplain so they can look up their property and see how they may have been affected by the expansion of the map. We know, for instance, around the Lake Travis area that flood elevations have gone up six feet as a result of the restudy. And that will affect some -- several thousand people around the lake. And not only the jew graphic scope of the floodplain, but also the elevation. People that may have been one foot out of water now are seven feet in water, so it affects both horizontally and vertically. So anyway, the issue here today is really a matter of public notification, and how much the court wants to go beyond the minimum, which is fema's notification by way of the newspaper and letting our constituents know about the changes.
>> what would probably be the projected cost if the county -- I believe you're talking about 15,000.
>> just estimating $15,000 of hard cost to get the notices out. That does not include temporary staffing that we may need to have at least during the 90-day period when fema is expecting for review and comment of the proposed changes. I understand at some point, probably six months from now, this will come back to the Commissioners court for adoption. Once fema has finalized the plans, the changes based on the comments they have received, they will finish their product and turn it over to the local governments for adoption. And so that's probably another at least six months out.
>> but as far as the overall rock bottom price --
>> 15,000 we expect a dollar per notice, and that would be a letter that's sent out directly by Travis County to affected property owners within Travis County.
>> mr. Davis, you wouldn't have any issue with trading me Lake Travis for walter e. Long for about a year? [ laughter ]
>> can we send anything to walter e. Long? This stuff is going to Lake Travis.
>> actually, the notices would go out to all affected citizens in all parts of the county. Not just Lake Travis folks. Fortunately we only have about maybe 3,000 folks that would get the letter around Lake Travis.
>> only?
>> yeah. [ laughter ]
>> so this is basically -- and normally, jennifer, if I’m understanding you correctly, and I’ll hurry along because I know the hour is getting late. But normally fema, when there's a change and stuff in the 100 year floodplain, then the maps have to depict those type of changes, fema -- they basically notify the person that are affected within the -- that own the property within the changes of the 100 year floodplain?
>> the law requires --
>> tell me, somebody.
>> on the preliminary maps which we've just received, the law requires that fema post two notices in the public notice section of the newspaper. That's the only notification fema is willing to do. Any other notification is going to be up to the local community. City of Austin is sending out notice in the electric bills, city of Lakeway has already sent out notices via direct mail to affected property owners on Lake Travis.
>> there's some advantage of getting this notice also. They may actually be able to -- what we don't want is for the first notice of this to be the mortgage company telling the property owner that they're now in the floodplain and they're going to have to buy insurance. And if they are notified in advance even before the maps are adopted, they could probably buy insurance at a cheaper rate than after the maps have been adopted. So there's an economic advantage to us to notify our property owners so they get a leg up on this thing before it gets adopted.
>> I think we need to do a follow-up if it's going to be just two notices in the newspaper, getting it at home, make sure that you then -- even if you miss the newspaper ad, that you will still get notification.
>> yeah, let's get it out.
>> I think we need to do that.
>> I agree, Commissioner. And let's get it out other than during a political season. So somebody actually might read something other than getting all this political mail that people are just like an necessary they sized over. When would this happen?
>> we would expect the letters to go out in April. That's when fema will put the notices in the newspaper. We want folks to be able to review and comment on the maps. That period will start immediately upon the second running of the notice in the statesman.
>> judge, I would move approval of our going above and beyond and spending the $15,000 to let everybody know.
>> you want to spend money to mail these, plus you want temporary staff authorization? The total is 15,000?
>> I think that's just for the mailout.
>> do you need to give us a budget or do you have this in a private fund that we know nothing about? [ laughter ]
>> if I’m allowed to use some salary savings from -- I’d certainly be willing to do that.
>> there are four sheets attached to the backup, which seem to be sort of notices from fema. Are these the ones that we would send to resident?
>> those are ones that we would place on our website. The letter we send out we would like to reference a web address for folks to go to our website to get additional information in hopes to cut down to the phone calls. That's really what's going to eat up staff time.
>> so the notice will be drafted real soon.
>> I would suggest we bring this back to court before we send it out so you know exactly what we're sending out and have a blessing before we send it.
>> and a budget.
>> and a budget.
>> there you go.
>> that's all in the motion. Discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all very much. Thanks for being public service oriented. We could have done nothing but put an ad in the newspaper. We'll do more.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 15, 2006 10:38 AM