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Approved 10/4/17 7 flood zone since activities are not allowed in this area. Mr. Harvey said that these regulations do impact farm operations, 318 meaning that Staff could prohibit a farmer from putting a barn in an area with floodplain. If Staff tried to prevent a barn from 319 being erected in a floodplain buffer, he thinks he may lose the battle. 320 321 Tony Blake asked about temporary storage for hay within the floodplain buffer. 322 323 Michael Harvey answered that he did not think Staff could prevent a farmer from storing hay in the buffer or from planting trees 324 for harvest within a floodplain, even though the act of harvesting can destroy the groundcover within the flood zone. Mr. 325 Harvey continued with the general discussion of the amendment, specifically that with the elimination of the Overlay District, 326 there will not be massive advertising efforts and comprehensive reassessment every time flood maps are amended, which 327 usually occurs every 4 to 5 years. This does not mean that current advertising efforts are out the window; the County will 328 continue its practice of sending annual letters to all property owners (see example letters in the packet in Attachment 3) with 329 property encumbered by floodplain. Additionally, Staff will engage in activities such as holding open house events on 330 floodplain and flood zone information that give the County credit under the CRS program. FEMA has a process to allows a 331 person or entity to amend flood maps called a “letter of map review” or “letter of map amendment” that is a FEMA process, not 332 the County’s. A person could go to FEMA and provide data gathered by an engineer to debate a floodplain map. The Orange 333 County Planning Department could get an update 6 months later from FEMA with the updated data and the County would 334 have a 6-weeks turnaround time to adopt the change. The best available data has to be used and updated at all times. If the 335 average public hearing process takes 4 months, this update cannot be done in 6 weeks. The timelines given to local 336 governments by FEMA to change and update maps are getting shorter and shorter because FEMA is getting more dictatorial 337 with the process. The County does not have a lot of flexibility to do a simple text amendment because of the Overly District. 338 This amendment aims to address this problem while still upholding the County’s efforts to do outreach with the public on 339 floodplain education. To re-cap, this amendment puts floodplain regulations into one central section in Article 6; eliminates the 340 Overlay District; eliminates the aforementioned process of updating floodplain maps through massive and expensive 341 processes; and tweaking definitions to be consistent with the new minimum model; and adding objectives to be consistent with 342 FEMA guidelines. 343 344 Kim Piracci asked about the consequences of ignoring FEMA . Is the only consequence that homeowners would pay more for 345 their flood insurance? 346 347 Michael Harvey answered that the consequence of not passing this amendment by November 17, 2017 is that the County’s 348 program would be suspensed from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which means no resident of Orange County 349 would be able to buy flood insurance. 350 351 Kim Piracci asked how Houston got away with what they did. At least some of the residents in Houston had flood insurance. 352 353 Michael Harvey replied that in some instances, participation in the NFIP is voluntary. It is possible that Houston did not prohibit 354 development in a floodplain and that structures like houses had to be out of harm’s way, but they could be in the floodplain. 355 Development does not have to be prohibited in the flood zone; it just has to be done under required standards. Mr. Harvey 356 further discussed why development sometimes has to take place within flood zones, otherwise there would be no land area for 357 development in some regions, like in eastern North Carolina, for example. 358 359 Tony Blake said that it is different on the coast. He said that it is his understanding that FEMA came through Houston after the 360 last big storm before Hurricane Harvey to suggest improvements that would make it so people could get flood insurance. 361 Many people made those improvements and were able to get flood insurance. He further discussed potential issues in 362 Houston with development activities in flood zones. 363 364 Michael Harvey said that the proposed amendment does not change the County’s regulatory stance that the floodplain should 365 be untouched, but the amendment aims to eliminate elements to the flood management plan that cause great expense. The 366 County had to budget for the current floodplain map change notification effort for 3 years. 367 368 Tony Blake asked if there is a structure in the floodplain that is “grandfathered-in” and it is damaged, can this structure be 369 repaired? 370