WOW! I just saw this on the local planning board agenda. On 20 December, in the middle of the holidays, FEMA released the next proposed revision to the Flood Insurance Rate Maps or FIRM’s. CLICK HERE to read what FEMA has to say about it.
CLICK HERE to see the proposed map for Jupiter.
The system is NOT user friendly. Here’s what you need to do. First, look up your current flood zone by address HERE. Note the current flood zone designation, and if you’re in a flood zone, which one and what the Base Flood Elevation is. Now you can look up the new proposed flood map. One can either note the current FIRM panel number as something like 12099C0189F. Then, go to the site where the proposed maps are located HERE and look for the the same panel number BUT with a G at the end instead of an F. Open that pdf file and locate your house. OR, you can locate your FIRM Panel in THIS PANEL LOCATOR MAP for North Palm Beach County.
I just looked up one property that is currently bordering on a special flood hazard area (Zone AE) with a Base Flood Elevation (BFE) of 4′ by NAVD 88 and it is now shown entirely within the SFHA Zone AE and with a Base Flood Elevation (BFE) of 7′. WOW! The base flood elevation has increased by 3′. In most places the BFE increased by 1′.
In terms of real estate values I found one study done post Sandy which found that homes in a newly mapped flood zone decreased in value by as much as 9%.
I just looked at the FIRM Panel for Harbour Isles and every home is now shown in a SFHA Zone AE with a BFE of 7′. The old BFE in the area was 5′. All homes in Pirates Cove are now in the SFHA as well. BUT Admirals Cove is a winner again. However they did it, almost ALL of the homes in there are NOT in the SFHA.
If you have an old survey or flood certification that give the height of your finished floor then you can ready this post on how to change this to the NAVD datum for Palm Beach County.
