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No wiggle room for flood zone scofflaws
A Times Editorial
Published November 28, 2007
Federal rules governing construction in flood zones are well known: No ground-floor living quarters in elevated homes. But all too often property owners skirt the rules by doing undocumented improvements - adding central air, plumbing or permanent interior walls - after obtaining their certificates of occupancy for the rest of the house.
One high-profile instance came to light earlier this year in the city of New Port Richey when a City Council candidate acknowledged family members lived on the ground floor of his river-front home.
It is a familiar issue. Former County Commissioner Peter Altman previously tried unsuccessfully to negotiate some wiggle room for homeowners from the Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements if the improvements were made by prior owners.
So it was disconcerting Tuesday to hear Commissioner Michael Cox seek the same wiggle room as county staff explained failure to enforce the federal rules could lead to higher flood insurance premiums across the county.
Cox eventually acquiesced, but not before suggesting inaccurately that the biggest causalities of higher premiums would be the very people breaking the rules.
Not so. Flood insurance is a typical mortgage requirement near any waterfront location. Canal- and lake-front property owners in central Pasco, for instance, carry flood insurance even though they are 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. They shouldn't be penalized with higher premiums, or worse, an inability to obtain flood insurance - effectively putting them in default of their mortgages - to appease west Pasco rule-breakers.
Tuesday, commissioners told their staff to proceed with prosecuting 170 allegations of illegal building in a flood zone. The cases will be sent to the county's civil Construction Code Enforcement Board, which has the latitude to forgo fines and allow property owners time to restore their ground floors to storage space only.
Cox, mayor of Port Richey during the rebuilding that followed the March 1993 no-name storm and flooding, suggested non-compliers outnumber people who follow the rules. Even more reason why stronger enforcement is required. Monroe County's lax attitude toward enforcement brought mandatory inspections of every home before flood insurance policies could be renewed. It's not a model to emulate.
Cox correctly joined a unanimous board in restarting enforcement. To do otherwise would have marked incredible inconsistency from a commissioner who a year ago pushed for new county rules and state legislation intended to combat fraudulent sinkhole claims.
The commission's zeal for insurance reform shouldn't change just because homeowners' proximity to the waterfront does.
[Last modified November 27, 2007, 22:24:03]
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