Flood Zone, Shmud Zone

Well it’s time to start unpacking some of the issues surrounding this new project in North Chatham. And there is no better place to start than The Flood Zone!! In 2014, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) released new flood insurance rate maps. A lot of people were in for a surprise, as they were now considered to be in a flood hazard area for the first time. There are two categories of flood hazard- AE and V. These are designations based on severity of flood risk and percentage odds of flood risk. The property in Chatham was placed in the AE zone for the first time in 2014. The coast of Chatham has been shifting and changing for hundreds of years, as sand is deposited and washed away from various appendages that comprise an outer beach. If you are house hunting in Chatham- or anywhere else on the coastal US- it is a good bet that you may end up in the flood zone.

So we knew this going in- the house was built in 1790, and it had not had any flooding to date- so we were comfortable with the decision to move forward with the purchase. What we were not aware of was the snowball effect that this designation had on my future renovation decisions. We have built in the flood zone before – ground up condominium buildings on the East Boston waterfront. I had a good understanding of FEMA rules and regs regarding construction in the flood zone. If you are ever out in Boston Harbor riding Codzilla or going to the ICA’s outpost in the Shipyard, you can see our buildings on Marginal Street. Very contemporary architecture designed by Merge Architects. Here is a picture of the one built last year:

Now – this picture illustrates the main caveat of building in the flood zone – No habitable space allowed below the BFE (base flood elevation). In fact, you have to be one foot above it. This elevation is determined by FEMA, and in the case of the building above, we had to be 8’ off the ground. Parking garages are not counted as living space, so we had parking under the building. The building has killer views, picture below, and all the units have roof decks.

Back to the Cape! We had a solid plan in place as to how we wanted the space to be reorganized. One big kitchen/family room /breakfast area had to be carved out. The only way to do that required an addition, so we decided to incorporate a rear deck into the living space. We also were going to need an addition to that long narrow corridor, to create a mudroom with storage, a laundry room and a full bath. At the far end of the house, the old garage turned living space would have an upstairs with two ensuite bedrooms. We would knock the one car garage off the end to shorten the building, and put a one car garage, bunkroom and media/playroom in the remaining square footage. The idea was to bring the house back to an historical context of big house, little house, outhouse, barn.

The former owners had been in the process of getting a pool approved. The flood zone designation puts the lot in the conservancy district, which requires approvals from the Conservation Commission. They had hired a civil engineer who had done the most extensive surveying of a property that I had ever seen. So I hired him to work on my newly configured house, as well as continue with pool approvals. Surveyors and Civil Engineers are key to getting started with any renovation or new build project. You will always need a stamped plot plan, at the very least, to get your permit. It is also important to know if you have the proper setbacks- from the street, sides and rear, as well as enough frontage and lot coverage. If you do not- you have a non-conforming building. I’m going to skip over that for now, but these issues are also paramount in the approval process for this house.

It was my newly hired Civil Engineer, Thadd Eldredge, who pointed out the 50% cost rule to renovate in the flood zone. In a nutshell- if your home improvements cost more than 50% of the home’s value, you are required to lift it out of the flood zone. Well now- I had been to the assessor’s website and was quite proud of the fact that the property was assessed for 2 million- well over what I had paid for it. When I went back to look again, I saw that the land was assessed for 1.5 million. The house was only assessed for 500K. Ok- so under $250,000 for the renovation- not enough to do the work. My mind started to look for workarounds. What if we did some work this year, and then some work the next year? I went to the Town Zoning By-Laws on the Chatham website. There was a five year look back period- so in essence anything that had been permitted in the past five years would be counted towards the $250,000. The base flood elevation would require us to go up 4.5’.

Well my friends – it looks like we are raising a house!