Tuscaloosa County
Property Rights Alliance
Property Rights Alliance
Does the Flood Damage Ordinance affect property owners above the floodway? Yes! Even if your property is on a ridge top with no water sources and outside the floodway, you would still be required to prove that runoff from your property did not affect flooding of properties at lower elevations before you would be allowed to build or alter your property in any way. This would be very expensive if not impossible to do. Under this ordinance you have lost your presumption of innocence. You are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.
What about taxes? Consider - In Houston, Texas recently, 10,000 homeowners lost most of the value of their homes because of the passage of a flood ordinance. Patrick O'Connor & Associates, a professional appraisal corporation, studied the impact of this ordinance. Their findings – Houston will lose between 1.9 and 3.5 billion dollars worth of taxable property from their tax base. This equates to 38 million to 70 million dollars in revenue loss each year for the city.7 The result - owners of the remaining taxable property (including the ridge top) will have to shoulder the tax burden, while the flood way property owners relinquish title to their property rendered worthless by governmental regulations. Everyone will be harmed by these regulations.
Footnotes:
1. National Flood Insurance Program, Program Description, Page 3, http://www.fema.gov/doc/library/nfipdescrip.doc, “In exchange for the availability of subsidized insurance for existing buildings, communities are required to protect new construction and substantially improved structures through adoption and enforcement of community floodplain management ordinances.”
2. Ibid. Page 27. “In exchange for this subsidized insurance, participating communities must require new construction and substantially improved structures to meet the minimum requirements of the NFIP.”
3. Ibid. Page 12. “Community participation in the NFIP is voluntary.”
4. Tuscaloosa County's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance, Article 3, Section A, The Tuscaloosa County Public Works Department is hereby appointed to administer and implement the previsions of this ordinance.
5.Ibid. Article 5, Section 6, Section 1316 Definition, “No new flood insurance shall be provided for any property which the Administrator finds has been declared by a duly constituted State or local zoning authority or other authorized public body, to be in violation of State or local laws, regulations or ordinances which are intended to discourage or otherwise restrict land development or occupancy in flood-prone areas.”
6. Ibid. Article 1, Section D, Objectives
---1.to protect human life and health;
---2. to minimize damage to public facilities and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets, and bridges located in floodplains;
---3.To help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of areas of flood prone areas in such a manner as to minimize future flood blight areas,
What about taxes? Consider - In Houston, Texas recently, 10,000 homeowners lost most of the value of their homes because of the passage of a flood ordinance. Patrick O'Connor & Associates, a professional appraisal corporation, studied the impact of this ordinance. Their findings – Houston will lose between 1.9 and 3.5 billion dollars worth of taxable property from their tax base. This equates to 38 million to 70 million dollars in revenue loss each year for the city.7 The result - owners of the remaining taxable property (including the ridge top) will have to shoulder the tax burden, while the flood way property owners relinquish title to their property rendered worthless by governmental regulations. Everyone will be harmed by these regulations.
Footnotes:
1. National Flood Insurance Program, Program Description, Page 3, http://www.fema.gov/doc/library/nfipdescrip.doc, “In exchange for the availability of subsidized insurance for existing buildings, communities are required to protect new construction and substantially improved structures through adoption and enforcement of community floodplain management ordinances.”
2. Ibid. Page 27. “In exchange for this subsidized insurance, participating communities must require new construction and substantially improved structures to meet the minimum requirements of the NFIP.”
3. Ibid. Page 12. “Community participation in the NFIP is voluntary.”
4. Tuscaloosa County's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance, Article 3, Section A, The Tuscaloosa County Public Works Department is hereby appointed to administer and implement the previsions of this ordinance.
5.Ibid. Article 5, Section 6, Section 1316 Definition, “No new flood insurance shall be provided for any property which the Administrator finds has been declared by a duly constituted State or local zoning authority or other authorized public body, to be in violation of State or local laws, regulations or ordinances which are intended to discourage or otherwise restrict land development or occupancy in flood-prone areas.”
6. Ibid. Article 1, Section D, Objectives
---1.to protect human life and health;
---2. to minimize damage to public facilities and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets, and bridges located in floodplains;
---3.To help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of areas of flood prone areas in such a manner as to minimize future flood blight areas,
"Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist." John Adams
We Dare Defend Our Rights
Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance
Adopted 03/08/2008
The Issues