Travis County Commissioners Court
August 26, 2008
Item 18
18 is to consider and take appropriate action -- no, that's 16. 18 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to notify residents of the new fema flood insurance rate map and flood insurance study for Travis County and the proposed floodplain regulation for Travis County.
>> joe gieselman and stacy shuffle from tnr. This is about public notice. In one month the new floodplain maps will become effective. These are the maps that were updated by the federal government. The boxes in your office are probably those very maps. And in two weeks the Commissioners court will conduct a public hearing prior to the adoption of a new floodplain ordinance for Travis County. It's an update of our existing. Incorporated into that ordinance will be the new maps of fema. In 2006 when we had the preliminary maps presented to us by fema, we did a public notice of about 15,000 potential parcells that would be affected by the maps. There's a 90-day period where comments could be made. Fema has addressed those comments and we're now down to the final adoption. So the question is should we if go ahead and notify again those 15,000 residents of the pending adoption of the map and of the public hearing? There's a cost involved. The last time we did this we got a high volume of calls into the office, so it takes up a couple of extra people to handle the day-to-day stuff while staff who are familiar with the new maps can address the questions that come in. Probably about a month period after this notice goes out. The city of Austin just did this notice, and as expected they got a high volume of calls and response. Their notice was primarily just to the city residents and some of the residents in the e.t.j. That get city electric power. And so what we would be doing is informing people outside the incorporated area. Those particularly interested would be around Lake Travis where the new maps show a rise of six feet in elevation of the floodplain. So there are a little over 2,000 dwelling units around the lake that will be directly affected by the new higher elevations. It might be good news for some of the property owners in other tributaries where the floodplain has been defined to be lower. And so -- or was never defined in the past and now is defined to show that some properties are no longer in the floodplain. But for the most part I think people that would be want to know would be those that either were not in the floodplain and are now. And this is one way of getting them notified. We estimate the cost of the additional staff to be about $8,000 for two temporary staff for a month. We also expect the cost of the noichtion itself, -- the notification itself, the preparation of the letter, the mailing, to be about $15,000. Only a portion of that are direct costs, that is, cost of postage to send out the notices by first class mail. And if authorized by the court to do so, we will get busy on that and try to get it out this week.
>> joe and I chatted briefly. This is kind of the action I think that we really need to make sure people know about, because they may well be impacted after the first real heavy rains. And I'd hate for all of them coming down after that time and saying we should have given them notice. We can't change a whole lot, but at least we can tell them what's recommended, a live person can be available to answer whatever questions they have. I guess if we -- we will note after the first week whether we're getting calls, right?
>> oh, yes. After they receive the notice, that should be about a week. And then in your backup there's a draft letter that we propose to send that already begins to address some of the questions we expect from the residents.
>> judge, from beginning to end -- and we've done this before, but I guess from beginning to end of the notice as far as what we're doing today, notifying the folks of the new floodplain map, and of course incorporating that into our floodplain ordinance later on, from beginning to end how much time are we talking about if the court take action today, which is the beginning, we have that and then the proper staffing that you need to deal with, the public hearings, all of the little moving parts in there from beginning to end, what would be the completion time line on this item?
>> well, the maps become effective in 30 days no matter what. So we expect 30 days probably the outside. We'll get our notice out this week. People should know about it within a week. You'll have your public hearing in two weeks. Two weeks after that the maps become effective. So you can -- we would prefer that the court adopt the ordinance prior to the effective date of the maps. So within a month time we should be complete with everything.
>> with everything.
>> everything.
>> okay.
>> so we know for a fact that 15,000 people will be impacted?
>> yes. We've done the analysis. The gis team has given us digital layers and we've overlaid that with the tcad parcels. So it is right at about 15,000.
>> I think it's worth the investment really. Have you chatted with pbo about the 23,000?
>> I have not.
>> does that mean -- whoa assume it's in your budget then?
>> I assume pbo would ask me to look for it in my own budget. They typically do.
>> [ laughter ]
>> that's why I move approval.
>> second.
>> not in your budget, come back and see us.
>> I understand. And also the authorization to send out more than I think 500 pieces of mail. I think I'm required to have that authorization.
>> to have it printed or mailed?
>> through the mail system.
>> okay. So do we have any additional money for the mailroom figured into this?
>> we're hoping they will pay for it out of their existing budget.
>> if not, let us know that.
>> all right.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. And that's to cover the staff and also the 15,000 necessary and get with the mailroom on the -- mailroom or print shop?
>> mailroom.
>> mailroom. And if there are issues there, come back and see us. That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:37 AM