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Approved 11/01/2017 <br /> <br />7 <br />Mike Efland followed-up on his question and asked if the footage off of the floodplain would change. He noted where 318 <br />the buffer was shown on the map he received. 319 <br /> 320 <br />Michael Harvey reiterated that if the floodplain on Mr. Efland’s property is increasing, the buffer will also be 321 <br />increased, based buffer requirements in the UDO. Mr. Harvey said that the map shows the size of the buffer which is 322 <br />based on the slope of property going into the floodplain. 323 <br /> 324 <br />Lydia Wegman asked if the slope determines the setback on the property from the floodplain. 325 <br /> 326 <br />Michael Harvey corrected setback to the floodplain buffer. 327 <br /> 328 <br />Tony Blake said that the setback requirements referenced in the UDO are defined from the new floodplain buffer line. 329 <br /> 330 <br />Michael Harvey agreed with this statement. 331 <br /> 332 <br />Lydia Wegman said that the existing UDO buffer requirements remain in effect. 333 <br /> 334 <br />Michael Harvey reiterated that the floodplain buffer requirements are not changing. 335 <br /> 336 <br />Lydia Wegman asked Mr. Efland if that answered his question. 337 <br /> 338 <br />Mike Efland replied that it did. 339 <br /> 340 <br />Ed Johnson who lives off Buckhorn Road close to a creek questioned the fine-grain accuracy of floodplain maps. He 341 <br />talked to Michael Harvey before the meeting about the positioning of his house within the floodplain. His house is 342 <br />built on a flat slab but he said that the floodplain map shows his house half-in/half-out of the floodplain. He thinks this 343 <br />is logically impossible. He wondered about the accuracy of the map and whether he is stuck with what is on the map 344 <br />or if it can be nullified by the Board. 345 <br /> 346 <br />Michael Harvey recommended that Mr. Johnson petition FEMA by writing a letter to request a map change. 347 <br /> 348 <br />Lydia Wegman asked if this information helped answer his question and recommended that he reach out to FEMA 349 <br />and talk with Mr. Harvey about his concerns further. 350 <br /> 351 <br />Ron Spada, who lives on McKee School Road off of highway 57, said that his property is affected by increased 352 <br />floodplain. He asked if there are programs for property owners to mitigate floodplain and erosion issues. The Little 353 <br />River is behind his property. Is there anything that the state or County would help with, like with a retaining wall, for 354 <br />example, to slow things down. 355 <br /> 356 <br />Michael Harvey responded that there are hazard mitigation block grants available on the federal level that can 357 <br />provide assistance for retrofitting. These grants are competitive and the County has to apply for them. Ten years ago, 358 <br />the County applied for and received this grant and used it for elevation certificates for 70 homes during the last flood 359 <br />maps review. Additionally, grants have been used to purchase people’s homes that were in floodplains and turn the 360 <br />area into open space. The County does not have an allocation for funds for hazard mitigation and federal aid is being 361 <br />reduced and/or re-routed to municipalities majorly hit by flood events like hurricanes. 362 <br /> 363 <br />Tony Blake asked if the USDA could help in any way. 364 <br /> 365 <br />Michael Harvey responded that he does not think that the USDA has a program designed to help with flood 366 <br />management issues. 367 <br /> 368 <br />Lydia Wegman said that the question comes back to FEMA having funding for local block grants and that they 369 <br />unfortunately have a huge demand on their resources right now. 370