Council Votes Thursday on New Flood Elevation Ordinance
The revised local ordinance would require the first floor of Ocean City homes to be two feet above the level of a 100-year flood.
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City Council will vote Thursday on the second and potentially final reading of a revised ordinance that would raise required first-floor elevations for new or reconstructed homes in Ocean City.
The ordinance is a detailed revision of building regulations (see attached PDF for full text), but the general idea is to raise Ocean City homes two feet above the level of a 100-year flood.
The discussion and vote on the ordinance takes place at a public meeting of City Council 7 p.m. Jan. 10 in the lecture room at the Ocean City Free Public Library. The first reading of the ordinance passed in a 6-1 vote at the council meeting on Nov. 29.
The ordinance had been drafted and considered by the Planning Board before Superstorm Sandy struck on Oct. 29, but the record storm served as a sobering reminder of the intent of the proposed new regulation.
Base flood elevation, or BFE, is the height storm waters have a 1 percent chance of reaching in any given year and serves as the baseline for building guidelines.
The existing ordinance requires the first floor of a home to be one foot above BFE. The proposed ordinance would require the first floor to be two feet above BFE. In some cases (such as when floor joists are parallel to the ocean and square to incoming waves in high-hazard flood zones, FEMA's "V" Zones), the habitable space must be three feet above BFE.
The new rules would put structures such as floor joists a foot or two above BFE.
With higher first floors, the proposed ordinance allows for higher roof peaks and greater roof pitches. And maximum building heights are measured from the BFE, instead of the centerline of the street.
The ordinance would apply to any new home constructed in Ocean City and to any home that undergoes reconstruction or renovation that costs 50 percent or more of the assessed value of the structure.
At the same time, compliance with base flood elevation guidelines will also be a factor in determining future flood insurance premiums on the barrier island.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently adjusted its base flood elevation readings for much of New Jersey. The new BFE map will serve as the baseline for Ocean City's "BFE +2" ordinance. Information on the new elevations is included in the following resources:
Coral
10:39 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
should be a clause .... build it up or take it down
Duffer
11:04 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
They should slow down and think through any changes. Also, and this is key, any change in first level height must be accompanied with a corresponding increase in the overall building height.
MDBJ
12:04 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
I believe there will be an alarming number of two year spanning (and two permit spanning) projects now..
year one, permit & projects totaling 35% of property value
year two, permit & projects totaling 25% of property value.
that 60% never broke that 50% value did it???
Eric Sauder
5:23 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
OK. I have this burning question I still don't have an answer to. Will the elevation requirements of BF + 2 apply to properties that are rennovated? The article states "yes" if the cost of rennovation exceeds 50% of the assessed value. Where is that stated? I don 't see any mention of it in the BF + 2 ordinance, and am not aware of it in any other ordinance.
Eric Sauder
8:26 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
PS: I'm not talking about the FEMA's requirements. I'm talking about the City's requirements for rebuilding. To pass this ordinance now, with so much in a state a flux, would be reckless beyond belief. The truth of the matter is FEMA came out with preliminary advisories and nothing has been finalized. Everyone I've been talking to is is getting conflicting information and confusion abounds. I'd hate to spend all that money to rebuild and elevate to find out later that the new elevation does not meet with FEMA's finalized recommendations.
Chester_c
11:55 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Coral does money grow on trees.? "Build it up or take it down". This decision will cost average homeowners 60k+ to raise the homes and the flood insured willget $30k ICC assistance, the same funding level for the last 15 years despite inflation. Amazing it wasnt sandy that will cause us to leave our dream cottage home in ocnj but will be the tide of politics that wipes out many homes that give ocnj the charming diversity of character. Heres to boarded up homes and vanilla stilted neighborhoods. Ocnj counsel needs to give us a break not break our budgets.
Sko Hayes
7:50 am on Thursday, January 10, 2013
Chester, I hope you are able to stay in your dream cottage. You're so right that these homes add to the beauty of Ocean City, and I would hate to lose any of them to these regulations.
At the same time, can you afford to stay and have this happen all over again in 5 or 10 years?
I don't know the answer to this.
Eric Sauder
11:21 pm on Thursday, January 10, 2013
Let’s do an intelligence test. How many misrepresentations and outright lies were told at the last council meeting? What were they?
you guessed it
9:04 am on Friday, January 11, 2013
Eric - name names who told the lies? Council does not think long term - they react, they think about the next election, they think about the guys promising to bring them votes (especially the ones deluded enough to think that they can be mayor some day - give that one up, it will not happen no matter how many bike paths you promise to put in the wetlands to make them happy boys.)