City seeks input to update floodplain map

FAYETTEVILLE — Homeowners can see if their property sits in a floodplain as part of a revision to the flood-risk map of the city.

The city has an interactive map online showing proposed expanded and reduced flood zones and areas that would stay the same. The city hasn’t updated its floodrisk map since 2008.

City staff members, Arkansas Natural Resource Commission members and a project consultant answered questions and guided residents through the new proposed map Tuesday at City Hall.

Homeowners with properties removed from a floodplain may no longer be subject to the provisions of the city’s flood damage prevention code. Homes removed from a floodplain would no longer be federally required to carry flood insurance. Policy premiums likely would decrease, according to information from the city’s website.

Homeowners who have a mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender would be federally required to have flood insurance if

newly included in a floodplain. Those properties also would become subject to the flood damage prevention code, which is meant to prevent future damage.

Letecia Yarbrough, business owner, said she discovered some unexpected changes regarding her property during Tuesday’s session.

“I thought I was coming in really just to say hello to people who I already knew,” she said. “I did not expect any surprises, but I did find they’ve already done quite a bit of work and there’s some new information that people should check and see.”

The information for the new map is being compiled through a variety of methods, including new federal aerial topographic data and updated hydrologic and hydraulic stream analyses. The Federal Emergency Management Agency could adopt the new map within 18 months, according to the city.

“I think they do need our input,” Yarbrough said. “I also think it’s the responsibility of property owners. Don’t get discouraged at the changes happening. That’s what happens when you’re a growing community.”

The city joined a grant-funded project with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2015 to update the flood insurance study. The City Council allotted $43,658 to share the cost of the $725,209 project with the state and federal governments, according to city documents.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE Ray and June Baggett of Fayetteville speak Tuesday with Lee Beshoner (left), an engineer with FTN Associates in Fayetteville, as they look at an updated floodplain map at the city administration building.