Officials using federal money in Hampton Roads will now have to follow stricter standards when building in flood-prone areas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency last week enacted a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard meant to lessen the physical and financial impacts of climate change.
The goal is to “make sure that projects using federal funding are thinking about the future,” said Tessa Nolan, acting deputy director of mitigation with FEMA’s Region 3, which includes Virginia.
“If the federal government funds a project, we want to ensure that that project is able to withstand climate change and continue to serve its purpose. It is holding development to a higher standard.”
The new flood standard is nearly a decade in the making.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order to mandate such a rule before he left office, but President Donald Trump rescinded the order before agencies could implement it. The Biden administration then re-issued the document.
Each federal department is now adopting its own version of the standard. FEMA’s is the latest to be finalized.
Ben McFarlane, chief resilience officer with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said the federal government’s previous guidance for construction in flood-prone areas was essentially, “don't build there unless you have to.”
“And if you have to, then make sure you build it high enough up to avoid impacting the floodplain or being vulnerable to flood damage.”
The new standard goes further, meant to reflect growing science about threats posed by sea level rise.
It does not apply to private development or influence flood zones under the National Flood Insurance Program.
If officials receive a federal grant to build or modify something such as a housing development, they have a few options for how to approach flood risk.
Overall, more properties will fall under the new standard. That’s because it applies to spots that data shows could easily flood in the future, even if they are outside of a designated FEMA floodplain.
Nolan said if a house is elevated in one of these areas, it may need to be raised higher than under previous guidelines, for example.
For facilities considered critical to the community, such as hospitals, “there’s an even greater safety factor built in,” she said.
The agency will also require that when possible, federally-funded projects use nature-based solutions, like living plants to protect a shoreline instead of rip rap.
A new online support tool from FEMA — currently in beta form — is meant to help state and local officials figure out the best ways to incorporate climate science, based on a project’s location and how long it’s meant to last.
The new rules are highly technical, and will mostly fall to local officials to handle, rather than residents.
The bottom line, McFarlane said, is that the federal government is catching up with what coastal communities like Hampton Roads know all too well: risks from climate change are mounting and have a direct impact on residents’ lives, including the buildings where they live, work and play.
Many localities, including Norfolk and Hampton, already have building standards that go beyond the new federal ones. Others will have a steeper learning curve.
FEMA acknowledges the changes could increase the cost of some work.
But Nolan said in the long-term, each dollar invested can save tenfold by minimizing future flood damage.
“While incorporating flood resilience measures into a project design may, in some cases, increase the upfront cost of the projects, the small cost is expected to result in far greater savings over time,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hampton Roads officials have been weighing how to best adapt local infrastructure to account for true climate risk.
The HRPDC is working to update guidance on building things like storm drains, to better reflect the expected rise in rainfall and sea levels. Local governments haven’t yet agreed on what those standards should be.
