![]() ![]() MetroNational declined to comment to FairWarning on the residents’ claims. They also emphasized that there are opportunities for community input on map change requests. “How do we ever know when the FEMA flood zone map is based on science and when it’s been revised to suit needs of a developer?”Ī FEMA spokesperson said the agency “found nothing false or fraudulent” in the map change after re-reviewing it. “This is pretty frightening,” said Steven Emerman, a consultant and retired Utah Valley University hydrologist hired by the group to review its research, in a presentation to flood victims. For example, the residents claim the model the engineering firm generated showed a nonexistent channel funneling water uphill to prevent floodwaters from ever reaching Preservation Lane. So to make the land more attractive to potential buyers MetroNational hired engineering firm Jones & Carter to generate new flood models of the area to submit to FEMA with the request for a map change.Īccording to an investigation by the community group Residents Against Flooding, Jones & Carter used false information to get the map change. In Texas in 2016, there were restrictions on using fill for housing construction in the 100-year floodplain. In the case of the Houston subdivision, the land had previously been a golf course. ![]() “The result is developed areas with increased flooding.” The problem is even more urgent against a backdrop of increased heavy rains and more intense flooding across much of the United States, aggravated by climate change.ĭevelopers often use FEMA map changes to “maneuver around floodplain management standards,” said Joe Rossi, a flood specialist with insurance company RogersGray who serves as a consultant to the National Flood Insurance Program and co-chairs the National Flood Association’s legislative committee. In many cases, they say, these former floodplains can also increase the risk nearby. About 90 percent were approved.īut flood experts and community groups argue that promises from developers and permission from FEMA are not always enough to prevent flood risk. From October 2019 through September 2020, FEMA considered 3,128 map change requests that involved developers using fill, an agency spokesperson told FairWarning. FEMA requires such changes if development will raise the flood level in the floodplain by more than a foot. The land was no longer deemed to be in the floodplain, and building eventually commenced on hundreds of homes.Īcross the country, developers regularly use flood map changes to build in areas vulnerable to flooding after getting FEMA to approve measures such as elevating homes, building retention ponds and raising the land with fill. In July 2015, over objections from community members, the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved it. developers routinely do: it made a request to change the federal flood map. So before real estate developer MetroNational put the land on the market, it did what U.S. Thousands of homes near the gully flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, the Houston Chronicle reported. During big storms in hurricane-prone Houston, a gully just north of the neighborhood often overflows, and water runs through the area “in a sheet,” according to one expert. Buyers might have been persuaded by the attractive single family townhouses, two-car garages and the seller’s promise of “clear pricing and no surprises.”īut what might surprise them is that before it became a neighborhood, this land was smack in the 100-year floodplain-limiting the development potential. The freshly paved street is lined with tiny saplings, and a sign posted at the entrance displays dozens of little red “sold” labels on a map of the many lots inside. Homeowners moving into the brand-new Spring Brook Village subdivision in northwest Houston enter their neighborhood through a gate on Preservation Lane. ![]()
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