What is the expected data on an Elevation Certificate in a Zone A with no established Base Flood Elevation? I've done several with known BFE's, but this is my first request for one without. Any guidance is appreciated-thanks!
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It looks like this is the way to resolve that issue. Happy hunting!
In our area we contact the municipality that the property falls within to check if they have established a local BFE. But it's been a while since I've done one myself...
Not so bad if its vacant undisturbed land. Around here the BFE will be 1' above the HANG, so the client will need to determine the exact building location, not you. The county requires the min building structure to be 1' above BFE. Basically 2' above the highest corner of the house.
Where I have problems is determining HANG on existing buildings that obviously have been graded. All you can do is hip shot the natural grade, and see where it fits. Cut sites are the real bad ones.
I'm still perplexed at how those yahoos can determine a property in a flood zone, when they've never even studied it. My real guess is they want everybody to have flood insurance, and I mean everybody, no matter how high and dry they are. another story.... arrggghhh
Good luck. It does take some real creative thinking to not only protect your client (public), but to CYA in the process.
Another side note that may not be good for business, is that in Zone A the owner can do their own. I've pointed that out a few times on ones I did not want to mess with, mostly folks that didn't like my price.
Here you would have 3 steps, first see if the flood plain manager has obtained a flood study and is providing BFE's. 2nd, see if FEMA, army corps of engineers, state water resources, or any other entity has any information, or 3rd, and often the most likely scenario, have a civil engineer perform a flood study to make a determination of the BFE.
There are approximation methods using contours and overlaying the FEMA flood plain, but they are not to be used for doing flood certs.
We have lots of Zone A flood zones around here and I go to the Parish permit office for the height. If one is not available I create a FIRMETTE of the area, give it to the permit office and they submit it to the NOLA office of the COE. They usually take 1-2 weeks to get us a BFE.
