First CRS Class 5 in Virginia: James City County Monetizes Protected Shoreline Buffers!
The Big News: James City County made Virginia history on October 1st, becoming the state’s very first Class 5 community in the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) Program. A Class 5 rating means that flood insurance policyholders in high risk flood zones will receive an automatic 25% off their flood insurance bill annually.
James City County earned this high rating by proving to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), that they are taking actions to reduce flood risk throughout the County actions beyond the minimum that FEMA requires. A few examples of these credited actions include: requiring that new and substantially improved structures built in high risk flood zones are elevated 2 feet above where flooding is predicted to occur in a flood event, requiring stricter building standards in areas of coastal flood risk, notifying residents about flood risk and how to protect their properties from damage, regulating stormwater discharge, and preserving open spaces in high flood risk areas.
That last part is the most important to us, and to James City County, because it means if you protect land in high risk areas (like low-lying floodplains where wetlands live!) your locality can reduce flood insurance premiums.
What’s the CRS?: The NFIP’s Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary incentive based program that rewards localities that take extra steps to reduce flooding with lower flood insurance premiums for property owners. Communities can gain points by adopting various floodplain management activities. Total points correspond to different ratings (also known as classes), which in turn correspond to discount percentages on flood insurance. Localities enter the program at a class 9, which earns a 5% premium discount, and aim to increase their class rating and corresponding discount, the highest being a class 1 and 45% discount. With every class rating improvement, discounts for policyholders increase in increments of 5%. Communities can earn points for actions in four categories: public information, mapping and regulations, flood damage reduction, and warning and response.
How Wetlands Watch Helped: Wetlands Watch helped James City County report their preserved open space, which accounted for almost 1,500 points, or the equivalent of 3 full class ratings, or 15%! Wetlands Watch packaged all the conservation lands located in the high risk flood zones throughout the County and submitted it for FEMA’s review. Credits are earned for the County’s restriction of development in the high risk flood zones in a number of ways, such as requiring the inclusion of conservation areas in new subdivisions and strictly regulating the land located in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA)’s Resource Protection Area (RPA) buffers (100-foot buffer). Many of the credits earned came from the RPA buffers.
What It Means for Other CRS Communities: Most of coastal Virginia’s flood zones overlap with the 100-foot RPA buffers, so if a community successfully restricts development in these areas, they can submit the acreage for CRS credits. If a CRS community struggles to restrict development consistently in the RPA buffers, earning CRS credits could provide some extra ammunition for community staff reporting to CBPA/Wetlands Boards. The 100 foot buffer was essential to James City County’s Class 5 rating and shows how important it is for all VA communities to enforce these important buffers!
Why We Do This Work: Wetlands Watch has extensive expertise in the CRS Program, serving a number of leadership and technical assistance roles in the coastal region, including Chairing the Coastal VA CRS Workgroup. We do this work because the CRS Program monetizes a community’s efforts to keep development out of areas of high flood risk (aka Virginia’s shorelines). Less development along Virginia’s shorelines means fewer impacts to tidal wetlands, which ultimately protects our wetlands features from drowning in place, giving them the opportunity to migrate landward at pace with sea level rise.
Virginia CRS Classes: As of October 1st, 27 communities participate in the CRS Program in Virginia.
Class 5 (25% discount): 1 community
Class 6 (20% discount): 5 communities
Class 7 (15% discount): 8 communities
Class 8 (10% discount): 11 communities
Class 9 (5% discount): 2 communities