Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Building in a floodplain

[John Beutler (jabeutler]

Louis:

Sure, I have an opinion: Why would you want to do that ?

At Liberty Village, in Maryland, our property has a wetland that is flood 
plain.  The wonderful folks at FEMA (the folks who brought you the New 
Orleans fiasco) have been busy drawing new fantasy 100-year flood lines on 
local maps that seem to make no sense, but have worried us a bit.  When the 
flood line goes straight up a hill at right angles to contour lines, you 
have to wonder if they are doing it right !  Most likely the resolution on 
their maps is insufficient to make fine distinctions...

The closer one builds to a flood plain, the more likely you are to have 
basements ruled out, and the more likely you are to have to pay flood 
insurance as a condition of your mortgage.  In the good old days, people 
built in the flood plains of the Potomac River, and every 30-40 years the 
houses were flooded and ruined - they are still rebuilding them, although 
the government has made some efforts to buy them out.

Apart from local zoning approval, I don't think a bank is very likely to 
fund a construction loan for a project that might end up underwater.  You 
just couldn't do it here, or in most places.  Flood plains are good 
locations for parks, or cropland, but not much else.  If someone tries to 
convince you otherwise, run away, rapidly !

Cheers

JAB

 At 02:54 PM 1/24/2008 +0000, Louis-H. Campagna wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have ideas, opinions pro/con, advice, experiences, references, 
> etc., about establishing a cohousing development within a floodplain ?
>
> All contributions welcome !
>
> Louis-H. Campagna
> Cohabitat Québec (forming)
> Québec City, Canada
> _________________________________________________________________
>
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John Beutler
Liberty Village, MD
jabeutler [at] comcast.net
http://www.libertyvillage.com/