Federal, State, City Officials Celebrate Partnership Initiatives

Federal, State, City Officials Celebrate Partnership Initiatives
pg. 9

OCEAN CITY — Ocean City’s federal and state partners gathered on the Boardwalk on Monday to extol the virtues of recent significant investments in the resort including an expedited beach replenishment project, continued dredging of the Inlet channel and a federal flood zone map revision that saved property owners millions of dollars.

Against the backdrop of a near-perfect late June beach day, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, along with Ocean City state representatives and members of the Mayor and Council, gathered on the Boardwalk at North Division Street to praise three recent federal investments in the resort area.

The first is a $3 million federal investment in an advanced beach replenishment project slated to begin this fall.

The second is a roughly $600,000 investment in the continued dredging of the Ocean City Inlet, which routinely silts in to the point it often becomes unnavigable even on high tide. It’s been a near constant battle in recent years and the federal Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement of a continued investment in the dredging of the channel earlier this month guarantees that effort will continue.

Finally, the federal, state and local officials who gathered on the Boardwalk on Monday morning praised a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to revise the high-risk flood zone maps that erroneously placed several high rise condos in north Ocean City in the highest flood insurance premium category. The revised maps removed the oceanfront properties from the highest flood insurance category and in the process saved some property owners potentially millions of dollars.

Mayor Rick Meehan led off on Monday and thanked the town’s federal partners, including Cardin and Van Hollen, along with State Senator Jim Mathias and State Delegate Mary Beth Carozza, for their leadership in making the three separate initiatives a reality for Ocean City.

“We’re very thankful for everything we have here and that’s due to those standing up here next to me,” he said. “We have a great relationship with our state and federal partners. This support is invaluable to Ocean City when you look behind us and see that beautiful beach.”

For his part, Cardin said investments in Ocean City project, especially beach replenishment, confirmed the federal government’s commitment to the resort. He said the federal, state and local partners, whom he characterized as Team Maryland, partnered in making the three initiatives a reality.

“Ocean City is critically important to Maryland,” he said. “We know the economic impact of Ocean City and your team will do everything they can to help Ocean City.”

Cardin said it was critically important to include federal funding in the fiscal year 2017 budget for the next phase of beach replenishment set to get underway this fall.

“The 2018 budget is very uncertain,” he said. “There is no guarantee it will pass. That’s why we had to advance beach replenishment because it is vitally important to Maryland. This is an incredible place and people love the beach. The beach is the selling point.”

In the only real brush with partisan politics during the otherwise rosy meeting, Cardin said the Trump Administration’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget could end up leaving out funding for vitally important projects in municipalities across the state including Ocean City.

“The administration’s budget would be devastating to municipalities,” he said. “The good news is, Democrats and Republicans are coming together and writing our own budget.”

To that end, finding the funding in the fiscal year 2017 budget for beach replenishment and continued dredging of the Inlet ensures the projects will continue as planned.

“The $3 million investment in fiscal year 2017 guarantees it will be done in a timely manner,” he said. “Beach replenishment represents close to $1 billion in direct savings and it is the best investment we can make.”

Van Hollen also praised the virtues of the federal investment in civil projects in Ocean City and the combined efforts of the federal, state and local partners that made it happen.

“In order to make this work, it does need to be a team effort,” he said. “When I think of Ocean City, I think of the Boardwalk and all of the great restaurants, but it all comes together with this beautiful beach.”

Army Corps of Engineers Beach Replenishment Project Manager Justin Callahan also said the combined projects could not keep moving forward without the great relationships between the various agencies.

“It’s a great privilege to manage this project,” he said. “Senator Cardin has been an invaluable partner. We also owe big thanks to Ocean City and the DNR [Maryland Department of Natural Resources] because this project does not get done without great partners.”

Callahan gave a brief overview of the overall beach replenishment project and the next phase set for this fall specifically.

“It’s designed to be renourished every four years,” he said. “This year, we’re speeding things up a little bit. The contract should be awarded next week and they will begin the next phase shortly after Labor Day. We’re going to move 900,000 cubic yards of sand onto this beach.”

Callahan also praised the economic impact, both directly and indirectly, beach replenishment has had on the local, state and federal economies.

“Beach replenishment has a 10-to-1 return on investment,” he said. “This is a great investment. It keeps Ocean City the destination that it is because it is the jewel.”

Beach Replenishment

Ocean City got good news earlier this month on federal beach replenishment funding when the ACE announced it was including the last remaining piece of the funding puzzle in its fiscal year 2017 civil works plan budget. Included on the list is roughly $3 million for the Atlantic Coast of Maryland Shoreline Protection project, or beach replenishment as it is known locally. Essentially, there were three funding sources need for the project and each is now in place.

The first was to repair the damage from Winter Storm Jonas in January 2016, the second was to bring the beach to what’s known as the minimum design template and finally, the last piece provides funding for four years of advance nourishment so the project doesn’t have to be done every year. The roughly $3 million in federal funding for the ACE civil works plan budget will cover the latter.

The Ocean City beaches are routinely replenished every four years with periodic emergency projects as needed following storms and other natural events. Beach replenishment began in Ocean City in 1994 through a 50-year agreement with the town, Worcester County and the state of Maryland partnering with the federal ACE, which provides over 50 percent of the funding for the massive undertaking.

The beach replenishment program is critical to the protection of Ocean City and its valuable resources from flooding from tropical storms, hurricanes and nor’easters. To date, the project is credited for preventing an estimated $900 million in storm-related damages.

Inlet Dredging

Also included in the Army Corps of Engineers announced list of projects funded in fiscal year 2017 were a pair of projects aimed at dredging the navigation channel in the Inlet and using the dredged material to renourish the north end of Assateague Island. The Army Corps’ project list includes $600,000 for the dredging of the Inlet channel and the restoration of Assateague, which has become an ongoing battle in recent years.

Dredging the Inlet also uses three funding sources. The first two are a 50-50 split between the Army Corps and the National Park Service and dredges sand from the Inlet and ebb shoal and transports it to Assateague.

The purpose off the project is to stabilize Assateague Island by restoring the sand that gets trapped in the ebb shoal that would otherwise have naturally transported to Assateague if the Inlet did not exist. It has the side benefit of dredging the navigation channel in the Inlet as part of that effort. This effort happens twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

The Inlet continually fills in through natural and man-made processes and is often impassable, particularly during low tide. While the Inlet and other channels in and around the mouth of the commercial harbor naturally fill in and are in need of continual maintenance dredging, the problem has become more acute in recent years to the point it is now curtailing commercial and recreational activity out of Ocean City. It’s been a problem for years and has put at risk the commercial and recreational fishing industries in the resort area.

The other funding source is the operation-maintenance funding for navigation. This is 100 percent ACE-funded and is used for the express purpose of dredging the navigation channel in the Inlet. That effort supplements the other ebb shoal effort and provides for additional dredging as needed outside the spring and fall efforts.

In May, the Army Corps’ dredge boat Murden arrived in Ocean City to resume the semiannual dredging of the Inlet channel. The work performed by the Murden remains just a temporary fix in advance of a larger-scale project to dredge the Inlet to 14-16 feet. For the last several years, the ACE has worked with local, state and federal officials along with other stakeholders on the longer term plan to dredge the Inlet to a depth that would keep the channel open and eliminate the silting problem that often makes the channel impassable for even modest-sized commercial and recreational vessels.

The latest part of that effort is a regional sediment management study being done as part of the Corps’ Continuing Authorities Program Section 204 program. The Corps is in the early stages of the study and is currently developing a scope and path forward. The Corps anticipates the study being completed with a finalized recommendation in 2018.

Flood Zone Map Revisions

Last fall, Ocean City got great news from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on its request to alter flawed flood zone maps that landed some oceanfront properties in the highest flood insurance premium category, costing beachfront properties millions of dollars in rising flood insurance premiums. Ocean City recognized the apparent flaws in the mapping, which put some properties in the highest flood zone designation despite essentially having two dunes to protect them, and requested a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) to correct the error.

Last November, Ocean City officials learned FEMA had agreed to adjust the maps after reviewing the LOMR, which essentially moved many beachfront properties, particularly along the north end of Ocean City, from the VE zone, or the highest flood zone designation. The LOMR moves the VE flood zone boundary to coincide with the beach replenishment project and removes all properties in condo row between 93rd Street and 123rd Street from the high-hazard VE zone and the associated high flood insurance premiums.

Last July, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued new flood insurance rate maps for the town of Ocean City that recognized the value of the dune system created by the Army Corps of Engineers by locating the VE flood zone, or the most onerous flood insurance rate designation “seaward of the landward toe of the primary frontal dune system.” In simpler terms, FEMA concluded the eastern edge of the long-established dune system should be the line of demarcation of sorts for the higher flood insurance rates and properties west of the primary dune would fall into a lesser flood zone designation.

However, in a few areas of the resort, particularly along condo row from 93rd Street to 123rd Street, FEMA determined through its new maps an existing secondary dune, built in front of several oceanfront properties in the early 1980s, was now the standard by which the VE flood zone would be determined. As early as 1983, the town mandated certain oceanfront projects construct a dune in front of the properties to protect them from storms, coastal flooding an beach erosion.

Years later, the primary dune was constructed through the beach replenishment project. As a result, the primary dune is out in front of the older secondary dune with a fenced alleyway of sorts about 10 feet wide in most cases separating the two. However, FEMA’s newest maps released last year in many cases along condo row designated the seaward side of the secondary dune as the line marking the VE flood zone.

As a result, numerous oceanfront buildings found themselves partially in the VE flood zone, some by as few as five feet. Because federal policy states that if any portion of a property falls in the VE flood zone, the entire building is subject to the flood insurance requirements. For some individual property owners, the flood insurance rates in the VE zone run as high as $22,000 annually. For at least one oceanfront property used as an example, the flood insurance premium for the entire building approached a half a million dollars.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

Alternative Text

Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.