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02/20/2019 07:55 AMThere are a lot of perks to living on the water, but these days, due to rising sea waters, living on the water also comes with its fair share of challenges both for homeowners and the town. With that in mind, Madison is now beginning to take more deliberate steps to be more resilient to rising waters.
Over the course of two Board of Selectmen (BOS) meetings, town officials discussed existing plans in town regarding coastal resiliency and identified some changes they believe need to be made. Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) Chair Ron Clark said the commission has looked at a number of issues and is considering some zoning regulations.
“The background is simply that the PZC has been doing some work over the past few months with the issues created primarily by sea level rise and trying to proactively find ways that we can make our zoning compatible to encourage people to take steps—not necessarily immediately, but over time—to stay ahead of the inevitable rise in seas level as predicted,” he said.
Town Planner Dave Anderson said many of the changes the PZC is considering stem from the Town of Madison coastal resiliency plan adopted in 2016. He said two key recommendations include raising the minimum height above flood levels required for new construction or substantial improvement and the other is to expand the definition of a substantial improvement within the flood plain.
Anderson said the substantial improvement regulation deals with how much homeowners are allowed to improve their homes before they would have to bring the home into Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) compliance. Currently, the regulation threshold is that an improvement that increases the home’s market value by 50 percent or more in a year means the home must be brought into compliance with flood resilience standards for new buildings, but Anderson said that leaves a lot of loopholes.
“So a substantial improvement, our definition now would allow you to do 49.9 percent improvement over the course of a year and once you complete that project, you could levy your past and do another 49.9 percent the following year,” he said. “Basically there is an easy way around improving your structure to become more flood resistant.”
Anderson said the goal would be to change the one-year window or “look back period” to something in the 5- to 10-year range.
“Many towns have what they call look-back periods where that cumulative improvement is looked at over a five-year period so you can’t do projects each year and still stay at that 49.9 percent,” he said. “Basically what it does is it tries to encourage people to bring their homes into FEMA compliance, which then protects their structure [and] also adjacent structures. One of the recommendations that was in the coastal resiliency plan was to adopt that five-year look back period.”
First Selectman Tom Banisch said no other town in the area has a one-year look back period.
“I know Milford has 10, Guilford has five, and I am not sure what Clinton’s is, but we are not blazing any trails here,” he said. “We are just trying to catch up.”
The other suggestion mentioned by Anderson includes the addition of two feet of freeboard, or additional height above the minimum FEMA allowance. When the FEMA regulation requires a homeowner to build at least 13 feet above sea level, the town regulation would encourage two additional feet of freeboard so that the structure is built at 15 feet above sea level.
“After 2016, the state building code actually required one foot of freeboard and so we are already not in compliance with the state building code and there was an act passed last year out of the state [that] requires municipalities to plan for 20 inches of sea level rise by 2050,” said Anderson. “I think it is appropriate for when we are looking at flood plain management regulations to assume that seas are going to be basically two feet higher by 2050. I think it is prudent for us to look toward our regulations and encouraging people to build to that standard now.”
Right now Anderson said this is a discussion at PZC, but the town engineer is also looking at the regulation and Anderson said selectmen should be prepared for this to become a bigger conversation sooner rather than later.
Banisch said any changes like building height or changes to the look-back period would require an ordinance change. Banisch said he would like to see some language drafted for that change and then the board can start to engage the public. Selectman Al Goldberg said he and Banisch agree there will need to be some public information work on this issue.
“I think before this board or the community takes any action on this, Tom and I have been talking about a public information session in which we invite some experts to come help educate us in the community about coastal resiliency, sea level rise, and what’s ahead,” he said.
Selectmen will schedule that session once a speaker is set. In addition, at the BOS meeting on Feb. 11, Banisch indicated that he would like to revive a flood and erosion control committee.
“Town Engineer John Iennaco is the flood plain administrator and we can add other people to that position,” he said. “We have a lot of people in town who have a lot of knowledge about this and I do believe we should appoint another flood and erosion control committee. I think that needs to be done and we can work on that.”
Residents can access the Town of Madison Coastal Resilience Plan and the Plan of Conservation & Development on the town website at www.madisonct.org.