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2 <br />Thus the Zoning Ordinance amendments take on five (5) different aspects: <br />1. Incorporating the amended FDPO text into the Zoning Ordinance text; <br />2. Making bona fide farming operations subject to Special Flood Hazard Area Overlay <br />District standards, regulations, procedures, and definitions; <br />3. Creating a new Zoning Overlay District -Special Flood Hazard Areas (SERA); <br />4. Affirming the various amendments to the FIRM (future SFHA Overlay District) that <br />FEMA approved on February 2, 2007; and <br />5. Correcting definitions and references in the Subdivision Regulations to reflect FDPO <br />terminology. <br />From time to time FEMA and its Cooperating Technical State partner, the State of North <br />Carolina Division of Emergency Management, approve Letters of Map Amendment (COMA), <br />Letters of Map Revision (LOMR), and Summaries of Map Action (SOMA). Since the adoption <br />of the new FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), which became effective on February 2, <br />2007, FEMA~has approved five (5) LOMAs, four (4) LOMB, and one (1) Summary of Map <br />Amendment. The primary objection FEMA voiced to the Orange County FDPO was that these <br />corrections to the FIRM were not specifically listed in the ordinance. <br />A LOMR alters the base flood elevation of the floodplain and the underlying Flood Insurance <br />Study, by lowering or raising the elevation. It is required for any stream crossing or dam <br />removal involving a mapped special flood hazard area (floodplain). LOMRs physically and <br />legally alter FEMA FIRMs. The applicant must notify all surrounding property owners by mail <br />and perform detailed hydrologic and hydraulic analyses to document the alterations. <br />A COMA is an acknowledgement by FEMA that the mapped floodplain does not reflect the true <br />base flood elevation, as applied to a specific house or accessory building. They are applied for <br />when a property owner believes his or her house, garage, barn, or other structure is <br />inappropriately mapped within a floodplain. An elevation certificate is required to verify the <br />owner's assertions. One of the results of the 2007 BOCC-funding floodplain surveying <br />program is that four property owners were able to receive LOMB approvals that effectively <br />removed their houses from a mapped floodplain. The FIRM and the underlying. Flood <br />Insurance Study does not change, but the flood insurance status for the house or accessory <br />structure does. In the case of the Cates Creek Parkway FIRM, before the engineer could <br />determine the correct hydrology and stream hydraulics for the new stream crossing, the flood <br />mapping data had to be corrected. <br />Keeping all FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps updated and current is an important <br />maintenance and public information task. Orange County is interested in the latest SOMA only <br />because the FEMA FIRM panel letter suffix has changed and this affects that portion of the <br />FIRM panel within the County's zoning jurisdiction. <br />For informational purposes only, an update of County floodplain activities, which includes <br />enforcement activities, elevation certificate surveying progress final report, recent <br />neighborhood meetings, and recent enforcement activities is included in Attachment 4. <br />Notification letters (Attachment 7) to both affected property owners and property owners within <br />500 feet of an affected property were mailed out on Friday, February 6, 2009. This is a <br />requirement of our zoning amendment notification process (Section 20.6.3). Because of the <br />