Lee County announced Tuesday that it has requested an additional extension of time from FEMA to respond to its requests for information to maintain the 25% discount on the National Flood Insurance Plan (NFIP).
The federal agency has already granted the province a 30-day extension.
This is the latest in the county’s battle with FEMA, which deemed Lee County’s floodplain management (and that of Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral) insufficient to maintain the Community’s Class 5 rating Rating System to maintain. On a scale from Class 1 (high) to Class 10 (low), the rating system determines whether area residents receive a discount on the NIV.
Previously, Lee County and the aforementioned municipalities had achieved a Class 5 on the scale, giving them a 25% discount on FEMA-administered flood insurance. Recently it was downgraded to a 10, completely wiping out the discount. Only Sanibel and the city of Fort Myers maintained their Class 5 ratings.
Cape Coral announced Tuesday that it had also formally requested an extension of FEMA’s 30-day deadline.
“I am confident that our staff can provide documentation to ensure we are in compliance and maintain our rating,” County Manager Dave Harner told the Lee Board of County Commissioners.
Why did Lee County lose its NFIP rebate?
A major factor in the review was unauthorized construction activity, FEMA said.
During the year and a half since Hurricane Ian, FEMA representatives have conducted site visits in Lee County to see how locally adopted floodplain management ordinances were being enforced and found them lacking, according to an email from the agency’s communications desk.
The email also stated that the lower class ratings and subsequent rebate loss were due to “the large amount of unauthorized work, the lack of documentation and the inability to properly monitor operations in special flood hazard areas, including compliance with substantial damage .”
Approximately 699,000 residents live in areas that will be affected by the FEMA decision. In unincorporated Lee County alone, which has a population of approximately 388,000, there are 51,103 NFIP policies in effect.
For 17 years, Lee County has had a National Flood Insurance Program rating of Class 5, which provides resident policyholders with a 25% discount. This saved Lee County residents about $17 million annually, a county news release estimates.
The province is backtracking on the licensing allegations
County commissioners took the opportunity at Tuesday’s board meeting to defend the county’s licensing and violation process. Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass called media reports of low permit numbers in the wake of the storm unfair.
“I know personally that (at one point) we had 30,000 permits (applications pending),” Pendergrass said. “It’s still America. People still have the choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing. We don’t have the authority to go into people’s homes and see if they’ve replaced the carpet, the wall, the electricity .”
In all, Harner said, 100,000 packages were damaged in the storm, and the permit numbers were about that.
According to the Lee County Manager’s office, the county has already issued:
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61,841 hurricane-related permits issued in fiscal year 2022-2023
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27,381 hurricane-related permits issued in fiscal year 2023-24
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5,087 demolition permits issued in the special flood zone
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2,151 violations against people working without a permit
“The problem is when you’re devastated, like Lee County, you need so many people,” Harner said. He estimated that about 600 people would have been needed to personally assess the “significant damage.”
The term “significant damage” refers to a federal definition of homes located in a special flood risk zone administered by the National Flood Insurance Program that are so damaged that it will cost more than 50% of their value to restore them to the state from before the storm. .
Because the county didn’t have as many home inspectors, Harner said, they opted to do a “windshield assessment,” or an assessment of the property when an owner applies for a permit. He cited mechanisms such as code enforcement violations as the primary way to get homeowners to comply with permitting procedures.
Pendergrass agreed.
“The Lee County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t allow people to run red lights, but they do,” Pendergrass said. “Sooner or later people are going to get caught.”
Kate Cimini is the Florida Investigative Reporter for the USA TODAY-Network Florida, based at The News-Press and The Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or kcimini@news-press.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee County FEMA fights over flood insurance discount, unauthorized work
