Amid a looming deadline for new elevation requirements under the National Flood Insurance Program, the township council is pushing for homes already elevated under the last requirements instead be grandfathered in.
The impact would be in Coastal A Zones, and newly changed requirements on elevating homes that are in the zone as part of the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps. The changes means a homeowner who planned to raise their home one elevation may have to return to the drawing board and make another plan for a new elevation. The grace period ends March 21.
Berkeley, which saw severe damage along its mainland bayfront and barrier island sections, has about 400 homes in the new Coastal A zone.
The township council passed a resolution in support of grandfathering “to protect the homeowners whose homes were built to elevations acceptable at the time of construction or reconstruction,” said Mayor Carmen Amato.
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