HARPSWELL

Revised Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps have been posted, and the news is not positive for residents hoping to avoid costly flood insurance rules.

The new maps show 800 to 900 properties newly located in a “special flood hazard” zone, sparking requirements that homeo wners obtain flood insurance or face the possibility they cannot sell their property.

FEMA released its latest edition of flood maps for Cumberland and York counties this week, specifying areas at higher risk of flooding.

The maps willl have a big impact across the Mid-coast, but especially in Harpswell — with its multiple islands and 216 miles of coastal waterfront. But local officials aren’t panicking.

“It’s not clear whether all of those properties have buildings in the zone,” said Jason Marshall, code enforcement officer, who is taking the lead on getting the proposed maps to the public. “Some of the properties have land in the flood plain but the residence is not in the flood plain.”

Researchers spent the last three years coming up with the new maps after the previous versions were rejected. FEMA acknowledges the new maps will place thousands of homes in a new flood zones, requiring homeowners to obtain flood insurance, which most commercial carriers do not offer.

The maps identify areas of a “1 percent annual chance flood plain,” sometimes called the 100-year-flood plain, which may be caused by a number of factors, including low-lying locations where ponding occurs, locations where streams may rise quickly during a storm event, or locations on the coast where flooding may be compounded by wave action.

“I’ve only had one incidence of a buyer planning to purchase property within the 1985 flood plains (the most current map being used),” Marshall said.

Still, it could be a harsh new reality for those in areas newly identified as flood-prone.

“I was told that the flood insurance for the property would be $38,000 per year in the (flood) zone,” Marshall said.

If that is typical for Harpswell’s flood zones, it would make many properties uninhabitable in certain areas — particularly Orr’s and Bailey Islands and other oceanfront properties.

However, there are still a slate of appeals and reviews before the maps become final.

In 2009, the town challenged the FEMA maps, and spent a great deal of taxpayer money to hire an engineer who successfully argued that some of the assumptions and the methodologies were incorrectly applied. Some of the areas that had been marked as so-called “VE zones” in the 2009 map are no longer VE zones, Marshall noted.

The town will first have a meeting with FEMA officials in a process called a “consultation coordination officer” meeting. The CCO meeting will occur in about 30 days, although no date is yet set.

After that meeting, the town may challenge the maps or appeal the findings in particular areas. There is a 90-day window for that process.

FEMA then posts a letter, and after all appeals are addressed, publishes a letter of final determination.

After that, the town has six months to approve the FEMA maps.

“I suppose the town could technically vote not to approve the maps,” Marshall said, “but that would place us outside of the National Flood Insurance Plan program, and no one would be able to mortgage a property in the town limits if we did that.”

The flood maps are linked to the town of Harpswell’s website, at www.harpswell. maine.gov.

ghamilton@timesrecord.com