So here’s one I dug into today. How to does FEMA determine when a property was filled for purposes of Letter of Map Change applications?
First, look up the community in the FEMA Community Status Book.
https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-status-book
Note the date of the ‘Init FHBM’, or the Initial Flood Hazard Boundary Map.
Next go to the advanced map search area of the FEMA Map search and search for your town. Look for the oldest map and open it which should have a date on the map that matches the ‘Init FHBM’ date just found. Locate the property on this map. IF, AND ONLY IF, the property is identified as being inside a SFHA on this map then any fill added to the site after the date of the ‘Init FHBM’ is considered fill by FEMA. For instance the Initial Flood Hazard Boundary Map for Juno Beach was enacted 30 September 1982.
