At a time when the Federal Emergency Management Agency is about to launch an effort to redraw the 100,000 flood maps across the country, it is important to be aware what options exist if a property owner disagrees with a floodplain determination.

In the parlance of FEMA, now an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, the 100-year floodplain is a Special Flood Hazard Area. It is defined as the floodplain associated with a flood that has a one percent annual chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Therefore the SFHA is not a flood event that happens once in a hundred years, rather a flood event that has a one percent chance of occurring every year.

Owners displeased with a determination that their property is located within a SFHA may apply to the federal government for a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA), or, if fill placement changing the grade is the basis of the request, a Letter of Map Revision based on Fill (LOMR-F). In addition, property owners may apply for a Letter of Determination Review (LODR).

Upon receipt of a request for a LOMA or LOMR-F, by way of a completed preprinted application, FEMA reviews the submitted property specific information (including significantly, the surveyed elevation of the lowest adjacent grade of the structure on the property) and makes a final flood zone determination for the property. The determination is often issued within 60 days. An approved LOMA or LOMR-F actually removes the SFHA designation from the property by letter.

Alternatively, property owners may apply for a LODR. It is important to note that the letter determination process does not consider the elevation of the structure or the property above the flood level. Rather, it considers only the location of the structure relative to the SFHA on the Flood Insurance Rate Map. FEMA issues a determination of whether the structure is located within the SFHA. This process is useful for an incorrect interpretation of the map or a graphic error on the map. A LODR does not result in an amendment or revision to the Flood Insurance Rate Map. It is simply “a finding” regarding the structure’s location with respect to a delineated SFHA.

FEMA has not announced whether the aerial remapping of the entire country (using aircraft equipped with laser-pulsing sensors to measure contours at 18 inch intervals) is expected to increase or decrease the number of properties designated in a SFHA. But many experts speculate that with the large increases in impervious surfaces across the country (from parking lots to building roofs) in the ten years since the last comprehensive mapping effort, there will be significant increases the area of floodplains.

Given that being in a SFHA on the map can have significant implications, including having to buy into the National Flood Insurance Program, it is important to be aware what options exist if a property owner disagrees with a floodplain determination.