Fillable Printable Letter Of Interest Template
Fillable Printable Letter Of Interest Template
Letter Of Interest Template
OMB No. 1660-0022
Expires December 31, 2016
FEMA Form Number 086-0-35
This document contains 7 tabs, accessible below.
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Community Request for a CRS Classification
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Next Steps
To participate in the CRS, a community must
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Community Responsibilities
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{Community letterhead}
{Date}
{Name}
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{City, ST, Zip}
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cc: {ISO/CRS Specialist}
{State NFIP Coordinator for your State}
{See the list of FEMA Regional Offices at www.CRSresources.org/100-2/ }
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{Note: This letter must be signed the by Chief Executive Officer of the community, such as the mayor or city
manager.}
{See the list of ISO/CRS Specialists at www.CRSresources.org/100-2/.}
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CRS Quick Check Instructions
General Instructions
Acronyms used in the CRS Quick Check
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Section Prerequisites
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Category A: No requirements
a. A description of the causes of the repetitive loss flooding. This may be a brief paragraph for each area.
c. A list of the addresses of all properties in the repetitive loss area(s) with insurable buildings on them.
Category C: Everything a Category B community has to do plus
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If your community has not had a recent CAV, but you expect that all floodplain development has been properly
regulated in accordance with your floodplain management ordinance, check “Can Meet.” Eventually, there must
be an official letter from your FEMA Regional Office that your community is in full compliance with the NFIP
before the full application can be processed. Meanwhile, the Quick Check can be used for the application
submittal and to tell your ISO/CRS Specialist what credit is likely.
Some of them can be removed if they are not in your community’s corporate limits or if they have been
mitigated. If changes are needed, your ISO/CRS Specialist can go over the paperwork requirement (AW-501s)
when he visits.
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b. A map identifying the repetitive loss areas. Those areas include the properties on the FEMA list and
adjacent properties with similar flooding conditions.
d. A notice must be sent to each property in the repetitive loss areas every year. Your ISO/CRS Specialist can
explain the details.
A floodplain management plan that includes the repetitive loss areas,
A hazard mitigation plan that includes the repetitive loss areas,
Repetitive loss area analysis reports for each area.
Check with your ISO/CRS Specialist to see if there’s an approved hazard mitigation plan that covers your
community. Look at the plan. If it covers your community’s repetitive loss areas, you may have met this plan
requirement.
Your community needs to have a flood insurance policy on each building it owns for which a policy was
required as a condition of federal aid (e.g., an Environmental Protection Agency grant or FEMA disaster
assistance). Generally, these will only be buildings located in the Special Flood Hazard Area. Even if there was
no requirement, it’s a good idea. Any disaster assistance for publicly owned and insurable buildings in the
SFHA will be reduced by the amount of flood insurance that should have been obtained. For more information
see Figure 210-1 in the @,.
Provide as accurate a count as you can. This number will be kept updated over the years. Your ISO/CRS
Specialist can provide guidance on how much of an effort is needed.
Provide as accurate a measure as you can. This number will be kept updated over the years. Your ISO/CRS
Specialist can provide guidance on how much of an effort is needed.
:428K 98L
Section CRS Activities and Elements
310
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This can include whether the property is in a repetitive loss area.
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Providing data from a wetland or habitat map would qualify.
330
Attach a copy of the material(s) to the packet sent to your ISO/CRS Specialist.
Attach a copy of the material(s) to the packet sent to your ISO/CRS Specialist.
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If so, enter 12 points. If your community has Elevation Certificates on the majority of the buildings constructed
in the SFHA since its initial FIRM date, enter 24.
You must keep your FIRM up to date. “Up to date” means the FIRM used for permit decisions reflects new
subdivisions, annexations, map revisions, and Letters of Map Change (LOMAs and LOMRs).
Almost every community reads its FIRM for inquirers and keeps the FIRM up to date. The key for CRS credit is
publicizing the service and keeping a record.
Publicity can be an article in a community newsletter that reaches everyone (a newspaper does not
usually qualify) or a notice mailed to locallending institutions, insurance agencies, and real estate agencies.
A record of the service can be established by recording information in a log (Figure 320-5 in the
@,) or by completing a form letter and keeping a copy.
Your community must advise the inquirer of the mandatory flood insurance purchase requirement.
Examples of explanations are in the form letter template and in Figure 320-1 of the @,.
If your community is willing to do all this, enter 30 points. You can then qualify for the following additional
credits, but the maximum credit for 320 is 90 points.
This is for providing non-insurance related information that is shown on most FIRMs, such as protected coastal
barriers, floodways, or limit of moderate wave action (LiMWA).
Such problems could include flooding in unmapped areas, local drainage problems, or the 500-year floodplain,
outside the SFHA.
This can be site-specific information, such as the depth of the base flood at a building or a map like the one in
Figure 320-3 in the @,.
The special flood-related hazards include alluvial fans, moveable bed streams, closed basin lakes, coastal
erosion, ice jams, land subsidence, mudflow, and tsunamis.
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These can be documents prepared by any agency or organization, including FEMA and insurance companies,
provided they address your community’s flood hazard, flood insurance, flood protection, floodplain regulations,
or natural floodplain functions.
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Section CRS Activities and Elements
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Attach a copy of the relevant regulation.
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360 & / %B
This credit is a prerequisite for the next credit on financial assistance.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
Attach a copy of the relevant page(s) in the Flood Insurance Study text.
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If real estate agents actively advise people if a property is in the SFHA, enter 25 under “Could” and your
ISO/CRS Specialist will go through the details. Often, the local real estate practice does not qualify for credit.
Examples are requiring real estate agents and/or sellers to advise potential purchasers whether “to the best of
their knowledge and belief” the property has ever been flooded and requiring final recorded subdivision plats to
display the flood hazard area. Enter 5 points for each such state or local regulation.
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Eight points are possible if real estate agents give house hunters a brochure on checking out the flood hazard
before they buy.
If the library has publications on flood insurance and property protection, enter 5 points. If there is interest in
putting free FEMA publications in the library, look at the Library Publications order form in Appendix C of the
@,. If you send the order form in, enter five more points under “Could.”
If your community is in a county with a county-wide library system and another community in the county is
getting this credit, enter 10 points. Your ISO/CRS Specialist can tell you what communities are getting this
credit.
If your community’s website has information or links to sites with information on the flood hazard, flood
insurance, permit requirements, etc., enter 15 points. A lot more points are possible. See Section 350 of the
@, for more details.
Does (or could) your community make site visits to help property owners (1) determine why there is a flood or
drainage problem and (2) provide general information on how to fix the problem (construction plans or
specifications are not required). If your community is willing to publicize this service and keep a record of what
the inquirer was told, enter 25 points. This activity must be publicized annually in a newsletter or other outreach
project that reaches everyone in your community or in the floodplain.
If your community is doing this now, attach a copy of a memo or other record of such a visit, with the findings
and recommendations.
Financial assistance programs include funding available from your community, mitigation grants, Increased
Cost of Compliance, etc. See Figure 360-1 in the Q,.
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Activity 370 (Flood Insurance Promotion) is a new activity that credits a series of elements to analyze flood
insurance coverage and where improvements are needed, prepare an outreach program, implement the
program, and provide advice to people with questions on flood insurance.
This could be a separate flood study that your community uses or a study that was incorporated into the
current FIRM. The study could have been prepared by your community, a developer, the county, the state, or
any agency other than FEMA.
The minimum NFIP requirements of using available data and requiring base flood elevations from
developments of 50 lots or 5 acres do not qualify for this credit. Base flood elevations would have to be
calculated for every project that will involve construction of a new or substantially improved building.
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If available, check the appropriate sections of the Flood Insurance Study to see if it included an existing study
and/or better topo provided by your community, county, state, etc. Do not double count this and any credit
counted as a flood study in 410.a.
Credited open space includes public parks, athletic fields, golf courses, church camps, hunting clubs, and other
green space that will be preserved as open space. There is no credit for open water greater than 10 acres,
areas with buildings on them (other than rest rooms and similar necessary appurtenances), street rights of way,
or areas where filling is allowed (e.g., a storage yard).
The percentage entered is multiplied by the maximum score for the element, 1,450, to get the actual points for
preserving floodplain open space.
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This would require natural area(s) with no picnic grounds, ball fields, or recreational facilities other than trails.
Your ISO/CRS Specialist will need a written statement from an expert in the natural sciences, such as a
botanist, biologist, forester, or landscape architect.
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Section CRS Activities and Elements
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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The percentage entered is multiplied times 300 to get the actual points for low density zoning in the floodplain.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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An example would be a regulation that prohibits residential buildings in the regulatory floodway or V Zone.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
Such regulations could include density transfers, transfers of development rights (TDRs), bonuses for avoiding
the floodplain or other sensitive areas, and allowing for planned unit developments (PUDs) or cluster
development .
Compensatory storage requires the developer to remove a cubic foot of fill for every cubic foot that is brought
into the floodplain. The requirement for compensatory storage is not credited if the restriction is limited to the
floodway or V Zone.
Enter 80 points for each foot of freeboard required for elevation and floodproofing projects. If there are areas of
approximate A Zone where there are no elevation requirements, then enter 50 points per foot.
Do not count a requirement to build three feet above grade in an approximate A Zone or two feet above grade
in an AO Zone.
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Section CRS Activities and Elements
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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If you prohibit new critical facilities from all or parts of your floodplain, enter 30 points.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
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Many communities require that all new buildings built on fill must be on compacted fill, protected from erosion
and scour. This requirement may be in your building code.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section. Note that credit is dependent on having permit records that
show that the ordinance is enforced.
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B
Some communities track all permits and add up all improvements and repairs made over the years to
determine when the substantial improvement/substantial damage 50% limit is met. This may or may not need
special ordinance language, but CRS credit depends on good record keeping.
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Critical facilities include sites and structures that are vital to the community (e.g., hospital, fire station, water
treatment plant) or that could cause significant problems if flooded (e.g., hazmat site, wastewater treatment
plant). Enter 30 points (instead of 20) if the regulations require critical facilities to be protected to the 500-year
flood level and have dry ground access during a 500-year flood.
A non conversion agreement ensures that the lower area of an elevated building is kept open for parking,
storage, and building access and not improved or altered to make it non conforming.
Most state building codes are based on the International Codes and would be credited. The final credit will
depend on local enforcement of the code.
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Sections 1803.3 and 1805 of the International Building Code require positive drainage away from the structure.
Enter 10 points if your community can document that this requirement is enforced (e.g., there are permit
inspection records that show that the requirement was met).
Five points can be added for each regulatory staff person who is a Certified Floodplain Manager and/or a
graduate of the following four-day classes conducted by FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI):
Managing Floodplain Development through the NFIP (E273), Coastal Construction (E386), and Floodplain
Management Advanced Topics (E194, E282, E284). The classes can be either at EMI or field deployed by the
FEMA Regional Office.
Five points can be provided if all elevation certificates, regulations, plans, and other key records for floodplain
development permits are stored in a secure location, outside of any floodprone area and at least one mile away
from the permit office. The records must be copied to the off-site storage location at least once each year.
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Section CRS Activities and Elements
440
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With internet access, you can see if there are any qualifying benchmarks within 1 mile of the SFHA.
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Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section.
510 0 M 1,B
Attach a copy of the plan’s table of contents.
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If you have more than one qualifying plan, enter 15 points for each, up to a maximum of 90 points.
Attach a copy of each plan’s table of contents.
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530
540
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This credit is dependent on having a channel inspection and maintenance program (Section 540.a).
Attach a page from the capital improvements plan that shows at least one drainage project.
610
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Credit is provided if your community’s GIS system shows the SFHA boundaries, corporate limits, streets, and
parcel or lot boundaries. The GIS must be used by the permit office. More points can be provided if the GIS
has additional information, such as the floodway or contour lines, as listed in Section 442.a.
This credit is dependent on having every FIRM and Flood Insurance Study issued since the original FIRM date.
Additional points are provided if your community has all of its Flood Hazard Boundary Maps.
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Retention/detention regulations for new development usually are found in the subdivision ordinance. The rules
must cover the watershed (not just the floodplain). Attach a copy of the relevant ordinance section. It must
clearly require that the peak runoff of 10-year or greater storms from new developments be no greater than the
runoff from the site in its pre-development condition. If the regulations require the developer to retain or detain
the 50- or 100-year storm, enter 40 or 50 points, respectively.
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Most communities have erosion and sedimentation control requirements for construction projects. Note that
these requirements must be enforced throughout the community, not just in the floodplain. Enter 10 points if
your community can document that this requirement is enforced (e.g., there are permit inspection records that
show that the requirement was met).
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B
Most communities require facilities to include measures such as grass swales and settling ponds to clean
stormwater runoff. Note that these requirements must be enforced throughout the community, not just in the
floodplain. Enter 20 points if your community can document that this requirement is enforced (e.g., there are
water quality provisions in developers’ drainage plans).
This credit is most commonly provided for a county-wide hazard mitigation plan that your community adopted.
Check with your ISO/CRS Specialist to see if there’s an approved hazard mitigation plan that covers your
community. If so, enter the number of points it is getting under the “Now” column.
Almost any plan that protects the habitat for an aquatic or riparian species will qualify for the 15 points,
provided that it has been adopted by your community’s governing body or an appropriate regional agency.
Plans that only address water quality are not credited.
This credit is provided for clearing primary structures. Do not count garages and other accessory structures or
parcels where the old building was replaced by a new, compliant, one. The parcels must be preserved as open
space. This should be easy to document if a FEMA buyout was involved.
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This credit is provided for elevating primary structures. Do not count garages and other accessory structures.
This should be easy to document if a FEMA mitigation grant was involved.
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This credit is dependent on having a channel inspection and maintenance program (Section 540.a). Note that a
generic nuisance ordinance or an anti-pollution ordinance usually does not qualify. Attach a copy of the
relevant ordinance section.
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This credit for inspecting and maintaining retention and detention basins is dependent on having regulations
that require such basins in new developments (Section 450.a).
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The plan or annex must list specific instructions for different flood levels, such as “Notify the Lincoln School if
the expected flood level will exceed ____,” “Close the Main Street bridge at flood level ___ …” or “Relocate the
equipment out of Fire Station #1 at flood level ___…”
:428K 888L
Section CRS Activities and Elements
610
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Attach a copy of the latest list of critical facilities in the floodplain. For credit, it must be updated annually.
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710
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This is automatically done by the Excel software to determine your probable CRS class.
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This credit is provided if your community is listed on the StormReady or Tsunami Readywebsites and has some
credit under each element in Section 610 a – d.
These 610 questions should be checked with your community’s emergency manager. This first question is
about whether your community monitors river gages or otherwise gets an advance notice if a stream is
expected to flood. A generic notice that low-lying lands will flood is not creditable.
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This credit is provided to communities that have some areas protected by levees (accredited or non-
accredited), provided that they have an acceptable inspection and maintenance program and a levee failure
warning and response plan similar to the criteria for a flood warning and response program in Sections 610.a
through d.
If so, enter the points for your state's dam safety program, i.e., the value for "SDS" from the "Dam Safety
Scores" tab of this Excel file.
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This credit is available to communities that have an upstream high-hazard-potential dam and where there is at
least one insurable building subject to inundation due to the failure of the high-hazard-potential dam. The credit
is for a dam failure warning and response plan similar to the criteria for a flood warning and response program
in Sections 610.a through d. Your community would need to have a dam failure inundation map and an
emergency response plan or annex that includes specific steps, such as the ones noted for 610.b and c,
above.
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Get the growth rate (“CGA”) from the third tab in the Excel file. Note that this multiplier only applies to points in
the 400 series.
