Anyone have experience with property in flood plane?

[BC288]

Found a piece of property that's located in a flood plane. For me its just an investment piece I may build a house on one day. It is listed as flood plane, so it's cheap. My question is, how much work is involved and is it possible to get it out of flood. The way it is set up leads me to believe if a house was built at the back, it would be fine. If you built it up, and cut the drainage right, I dont see it flooding. There are houses on either side of it that have never flooded, both over 50 years old. Just curious if anyone has experience with this, and if it's worth it for a good deal. obviously it's a headache cuz no one has bought it yet, but I'm not scared of some leg work.

[gonzaleziam]

You should look into restrictions first. I was about to do the same until they said “no more houses can be built there”.


Few years later, I was glad for those restrictions. It flooded and the houses that were there were destroyed.

[Kingfisher789]

https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-flood-hazard-mapping

[30-30]

Be careful not to disturb/fill any potentially jurisdictional wetland areas.

[Carpe_diem]

Very generally speaking, if you change the natural flow of water on your property so that it flows onto your neighbors property instead, you can be legally liable for the resulting damage to the neighbors' property. That is an oversimplification of a law you should learn more about before you take action that will affect the natural flow of water onto someone else's property.

[dhall1414]

I was in a similar situation a few years back. If there aren't already restrictions from new construction then you can build on it. Being in the floodplain means any financing institution will require flood insurance, if they'll do it at all. But there are ways to minimize or even eliminate real concerns of flooding.

Find out what the anticipated water level would be for a 500 year flood. Once you have that you can just build so that your floor is 3 feet above that. If the 500 year mark is relatively low you can just move some dirt around on the property to make a little hill for your structure to sit on. It's required that when you move dirt it has to come from within the floodplain itself, otherwise it will displace water and exceed the planned boundaries. If the 500 year mark is prohibitively high for making a little hill, then you can build the structure on stilts like they do down in Galveston along the coast.

[Mike]

Do the research now, look at those restrictions, this happened in West Houston area when they eased the restrictions and let people build in the flood plain, all those homes were flooded.

Just know that you will need to get updated elevation certificates once you add fill dirt. You can raise it and get out of the plain. A Beach House style is a great option too.

[Mike]

Very generally speaking, if you change the natural flow of water on your property so that it flows onto your neighbors property instead, you can be legally liable for the resulting damage to the neighbors' property. That is an oversimplification of a law you should learn more about before you take action that will affect the natural flow of water onto someone else's property.

I suffer from this as well as all my neighbors. I see people tout this law on the books all the time but realize it's a big deal to get anything done and you have to file suit on your neighbor.

[Neck]

Check with the county and see what your new construction requirement is. I know in Brazoria county it has been BFE +2 but last time I talked to our Flood Plain Administrator they were considering making it BFE +4 because Harvey revealed the +2 was not enough.
Then if you do build and your home is high enough above the BFE your flood insurance will not be as high. You obviously will need a elevation certificate.

[JayB]

The only way to 'officially' get it removed from the flood plane after you make the needed corrections, is then file a letter of map revision (LOMR) with FEMA. I understand it is a long, tedious process and all rules must be strictly followed.

[ken]

Do the research now, look at those restrictions, this happened in West Houston area when they eased the restrictions and let people build in the flood plain, all those homes were flooded.

Just know that you will need to get updated elevation certificates once you add fill dirt. You can raise it and get out of the plain. A Beach House style is a great option too.

The houses that flooded in West Houston area during Harvey were NOT in an area zoned as a flood plane.

[Mike]

The houses that flooded in West Houston area during Harvey were NOT in an area zoned as a flood plane.

I don't think they were in a flood plain as it was rezoned. It was a large subdivision that was in an area where no construction was allowed for a long time and then due to growth was rezoned to allow more growth since it had not flooded in a long time.

[flywise]

You better check with your insurance company before building anything and flood insurance is high dollar unless You build it higher than the flood plane

[Landrover]

Following!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[SaintBlaise]

Regarding flooding. Houston had back to back 50 year floods.

You can simply build on piers and wrap the foundation with bricks. That way you don’t disturb any wetlands codes or flood you neighbors.