October 14th, 2007 by Michael Oliver

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I wanted to post about the new FEMA flood maps that will go into effect in September of 2008. The new maps place a majority of Marana in a floodplain which will affect homeowners who will be required to purchase flood insurance. Town officials do not agree with the new maps, stating that FEMA used out-of-date information when making the update. They are fighting the decision. According to Rodney Campbell (the Marana Public Information Officer), “The town is very disappointed with the mapping.”

The new floodplain area will include everything between the railroad and the Santa Cruz River, and from the county line to Ina Road. That’s about all developed areas in Marana, with the exclusion of Dove Mountain.

After Katrina in New Orleans, FEMA revised the requirements for proper levees and water drainage systems. FEMA then decided that Marana did not possess proper drainage to handle extreme circumstance water flows, and decided that most of Marana should be included in the floodplain.

The city plans to fight the ruling by hiring a private firm to do a large-scale drainage study that will take 18-24 months. The city is hoping that will answer and satisfy FEMA to show that most of the affected land is actually safe and should be removed from the new maps. If there are any areas that the study does not validate, the city will need to do physical capital improvements to have those areas taken out of the new flood plain maps. These capital improvements could take 5-6 years to complete.

The best thing homeowners should do, in my opinion, is go to their insurance agent and look into flood insurance. It will be cheap for the time being since on current maps, most of Marana is not in the flood zone. Hopefully, when the new maps go into effect, your insurance company may grandfather you in at the old prices. If not, you will most likely have to pay the higher flood insurance premiums, which do get pretty expensive.

As far as the real estate market is concerned, this is a major problem. No one wants to buy a home in a flood zone. In addition, flood insurance for homes in a flood zone is expensive and makes homes less affordable in the Marana area. In my opinion, Marana will get this fixed, with majority of the homes that are going to be included in the new flood zones, fixed and pulled out of them. The only question is how long that takes and also what that will do to the home values in the meantime. Having your home placed in a flood zone makes it worth, in my opinion worth, considerably less. Buyers who want to buy in the area will have to sign flood zone addendums and also will be required to take out flood insurance policies before they buy. This will make potential homebuyers think twice before deciding to purchase in Marana. The same potential buyers could buy in Oro Valley or another comparable area outside of a flood area, and use the money that they would have to pay in flood insurance premiums to buy a larger home in another area. Wouldn’t you?