ARIZONA DAILY STAR: Thurs., Oct. 18, 2007
Giffords at bat for Marana on flood issue
By Brian J. Pedersen
Marana officials have enlisted the aid of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in their effort to prevent much of the town from being put into a high-risk flood zone.
"This is unnecessarily snaring homeowners who aren't at risk," the Democrat said Wednesday afternoon during a videoconference with representatives from Marana, Oro Valley and Pima County, area developers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA released draft maps last month that will put 10 square miles of Marana into a flood plain, a result of FEMA's ongoing Flood Map Modernization Program that included identification of all levees and leveelike structures throughout the country. FEMA has determined that the Central Arizona Project canal, the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and I-10 act like levees, but since they don't meet official levee standards, they can't be used to prevent flooding.
Consequently, areas that are perceived as being protected by these structures will be put into a Zone A flood plain as of Sept. 30, 2008. All homeowners with federally backed mortgages in Zone A would then be required to buy flood insurance.
Already feeling the effects of a slowdown in the housing market, Marana could become a development wasteland, officials said, if flood insurance were to become necessary to live or build there.
"There is nobody that wants to buy property in a flood zone," said Dean Wingert, senior vice president of Forest City Land Group, which is developing the Gladden Farms master-planned community in Marana. Wingert said that within a week of FEMA releasing its draft maps, a $6 million development deal fell through with Richmond American for that home builder to construct its fourth neighborhood in Gladden Farms.
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