By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Upper Township Committee members have committed to hosting a pub-lic information meeting on flood zones and flood insurance in July.
Homeowners within flood zones will have a chance to speak with experts about their properties and flood insurance rates. The intent is that owners will gain information on how to improve their flood protections and potentially save on insurance costs.
The event could be a step toward saving money for flood insurance ratepayers throughout the township.
Under the Community Rating System, a federal initiative to improve flood protections by offer-ing community-wide discounts in rates under the National Flood Insurance Program, Upper Township homeowners in flood zones save 25 percent on flood insurance each year.
Township engineer Paul Dietrich is working to increase that to 30 percent by 2021. To do that, he has to improve the township’s classification under the Community Rating System. The public information meeting will be a big step toward that goal, he said.
The Atlantic-Cape May Coastal Coalition, of which Upper Township is a member along with numerous other shore communities, plans to present the event as part of a series of meetings in its member communities. Formed after Hurricane Sandy, the group has met monthly since 2013.
Engineers, municipal flood managers and other experts will be at the meetings. Dietrich said homeowners should bring their flood insurance information and elevation certificate. He said he also needs at least one elected member of Township Committee at the meeting.
Why much of the discussions of flood insurance rates center on the barrier island communities, he told committee members that a lot of properties in the mainland communities of the township are also in flood zones.
“We want to make sure properties are rated properly. A lot of them on the mainland aren’t rat-ed properly. That’s because of a whole host of reasons,” Dietrich said.
The meeting is intended to help make sure residents are not paying more than required for flood insurance.
Mayor Rich Palombo asked for an assurance that participation could only help those with flood insurance. He also questioned the timing of the meeting. In a sample resolution discussed at the Feb. 24 committee meeting, a weekday morning in April was used as an example of when the upcoming event could take place. Dietrich said the schedule is still being worked out.
“Why are we in April? We have Strathmere residents that won’t be here in April. Why don’t we try to do it in June, or July? We need it closer to the summer. We want all the residents to be there,” Palombo said.
Dietrich said the event was not only for Strathmere residents.
“We have a lot of residents on the mainland that are in the flood plain, too,” he said.
He anticipated hosting a spring event aimed more at the residents of the mainland communities, with the idea that Strathmere residents could attend a summer event at one of the other towns in the Coastal Coalition, such as Sea Isle City or Ocean City. Both plan to host similar sessions.
“Paul, that’s great that they’re doing it for their own communities. We need to schedule it for our communities,” Palombo said. “Strathmere is Upper Township. We’re going to do one in July for all of Upper Township.”
He promised to get a committee member to a July meeting.
A formal resolution is expected to go before Township Committee at the Monday, March 9 meeting, planned for 7:30 p.m. at Township Hall, 2100 Tuckahoe Road in Petersburg.
The township is currently listed as a Class 5 community under the Community Rating System, which saves ratepayers a quarter of the cost of their flood insurance rate. Late last year, Ocean City announced it had reached a Class 4 rating, raising the discount to 30 percent, the same as Dietrich’s goal for 2021.
Nearby Sea Isle City is at Class 3, the first in the state to reach that level, which means a 35 percent discount in flood insurance. A few towns have reached the lofty Class 2 rating, and only one — Roseville, Calif. — has achieved a Class 1 rating in the system.
Points are awarded for informing residents and property owners about flood hazards, setting high standards for construction in flood hazard zones and other steps, including flood mitiga-tion efforts and community education.