If you've ever watched water creep toward your property during a storm, you know the sinking feeling it can bring. Flooding is America's most common and expensive natural disaster. But communities that get ahead of it with smart floodplain management are protecting residents, speeding up recovery, and help homeowners save money on insurance.
Let's talk about what good floodplain management looks like in practice, using Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey as a real-world example.
When most people hear "floodplain," they picture empty land next to a river or ocean. But healthy floodplains are dynamic systems. They can temporarily store floodwaters, filter pollutants, recharge groundwater, reduce erosion, and support diverse ecosystems. Meanwhile they reduce flood risk for surrounding areas. Think of them as nature's shock absorbers.
Here's a number that puts it in perspective: just one acre of floodplain can hold about 330,000 gallons of water when it's a foot deep, according to FEMA. That's natural infrastructure protecting your neighborhood.
Floodplains can also be developed, and when communities manage their floodplains well, everyone benefits:
Smart management can pay off in another way, too: lower flood insurance premiums.
FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program isn't just about selling insurance. It also sets minimum development standards for local communities to adopt and enforce. The communities that go beyond those minimums can earn insurance discounts for their residents through the Community Rating System (CRS). Over 1,500 communities nationwide have participated.
Two things worth knowing about:
Risk Rating 2.0 is FEMA's updated way of pricing flood insurance. Instead of one-size-fits-all, it looks at each property individually: flood type, distance to water, elevation, rebuild cost, all of it. It's more fair, but it also means local governments need to be on their game with documentation.
Community Rating System (CRS) rewards communities that go above and beyond with real premium discounts for residents. The better your town manages flood risk, the more you can save.
After FEMA rolled out Risk Rating 2.0, Point Pleasant Beach faced a challenge. They needed tighter permitting and better reporting for properties in flood zones. The old paper-based system was too slow, too prone to errors, and way too painful when FEMA or the state asked for reports.
So in 2021, they went digital with GovPilot's floodplain management module. Everything from the applications to inspections, approvals, and reporting moved online.
The results were immediate:
As Michael Thulen, Jr., the town's Construction Code Official, put it: "GovPilot's digital forms enable residents and contractors to easily apply for floodplain permits and the platform has proven crucial to our town's ability to meet reporting requirements set by FEMA, the State of New Jersey, and the Community Ratings Service."
Start with an honest look at your current setup. Does your floodplain ordinance meet NFIP minimums? Should it go further based on local risks? Do you have a designated Floodplain Administrator who can enforce consistently?
Then eliminate paper forms. Move to a platform that enforces workflow, timestamps everything, and can generate FEMA and CRS reports on demand, the way Point Pleasant Beach did.
Map your CRS opportunities. Figure out which CRS activities you're already doing and which ones you could add (public outreach, higher standards, drainage maintenance, elevation certifications). Track them centrally so you can capture those discounts.
Help property owners understand the new system. Give clear guidance on mitigation steps that reduce risk and potentially premiums.
Floodplain management is a continuous program that genuinely saves lives and money. Communities that plan well, enforce consistently, and document thoroughly become safer and more affordable places to live.
Point Pleasant Beach proves it can be done. Their modern approach delivers faster reporting, better compliance, and a stronger case for resident savings. If your community is ready to modernize how it handles floodplain permitting and reporting, the playbook exists. And the benefits are real.
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