Memorandum Agenda Item 24 03/29,30, 1999

• Board Meeting Date: 3/29/1999
• Description: Board Meeting Cooperating Technical Community ‎(CTC)‎ Agreement Between FEMA and Urban Drainage & Flood Control District Relationship to CWCB Floodplain Designations and Approvals
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

DISCUSSION: •
Questions that have arisen concerning the CTC proposal and its relationship to the CWCB are:
1. What work would Urban Drainage perform under the CTC agreement?
Urban Drainage would prepare, through its own staff resources or, more likely, by hiring local
consultants, draft Flood Insurance Studies or major components of these studies. FEMA would
"perform limited technical review" of these studies before finalization.
Urban Drainage would also "coordinate" Letters of Map Change, known as LOMCs (LOMRs,
CLOMRs, etc.), including review of technical materials, coordination with local governments
within Urban Drainage and the provision of a letter to FEMA stating Urban Drainage's approval
of the proposed LOMC. Again FEMA would "perform limited technical review" of these
submittals.
2. If there is no additional federal funding, how will CTC be implemented?
If no additional funding is available (which is the case right now), FEMA could not pay Urban
Drainage to perform floodplain mapping. In that case, it is likely that Urban Drainage would
only perform floodplain mapping for stream reaches which it was studying anyway for its own
floodplain management purposes. It is possible that Urban Drainage might absorb the additional •
cost of the existing conditions mapping that FEMA requires besides the future conditions
mapping that Urban Drainage already performs.
There are preliminary indications that FEMA is considering earmarking a portion of the money
that it already spends on mapping performed by various study contractors specifically for CTC
contractors. It is possible that as early as Federal FY 2000 (beginning October 1, 1999) some
predetermined percentage of the mapping budget for FEMA Region VIII would be set aside for
CTC studies. If that actually happens, there would likely be a significant incentive for other
communities besides Urban Drainage to consider becoming CTC's.
If Urban Drainage were willing and able to take on the responsibility for processing LOMRs, and
if a payment agreement compliant with Colorado's TABOR requirements could be developed,
then LOMR processing might be self-financing. The fees paid by LOMR applicants to FEMA
would be used to cover the cost of Urban Drainage doing work currently performed by FEMA
and its technical contractor in Washington, Baker Engineers.
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