There was discussion about the new FEMA Floodplain mapping at last night's Grand Chute Town Board meeting. 890 properties in Grand Chute are affected. As previously stated, Grand Chute has little to no authority as the town falls under Outagamie County regulations. However, knowing this can be a confusing process to go through for someone that has little experience dealing with this matter, I made a motion for staff to create a form or guide sheet for affected residents. The guide sheet would include an explanation of what has to be done in order to appeal FEMA's mapping. It would also have a detailed step-by-step process on how to go about making an appeal, and include contact names and numbers at the County. The motion passed 4-0.*
A representative from Omni and Assoociates also attended the meeting and expressed his concerns that there are many errors to the new floodplain mapping. He suggested that the Town of Grand Chute could look into having a broad scale study done. This would be done by examining sections of densely affected areas, instead of each individual parcel. If there were disputes based on the broad study, the town could initiate a one time appeal. Omni's representative estimated initial costs to the town could be about $15,000. This could be brought up on a future Town Board agenda.
Note: This has been corrected from previous posting. There were only four supervisors in attendance, all were in agreement and this should be confirmed when the meeting minutes are approved at the March 3rd meeting.
