City Engineer Fights the Feds, Prevails for Residents

There is an old saying that death and taxes are inevitable. If you own a home, you can add a third item to that list: insurance.

Some people go without health insurance or dental insurance or even life insurance, but if you own a house, you must have homeowners insurance. Not only that, if you live in a designated flood plain, you have to carry flood insurance, too.

The only problem is, who decides whether or not you live in a flood plain? It’s no small decision as it can cost a homeowner more than $1,000 a year on top of their regular insurance.

That’s why a dispute settled between the city of Wyandotte and the Federal Emergency Management Agency–the governmental agency which has the final word on where flood plains exist–is so important to many city homeowners. While the final maps are not in yet from FEMA, city engineer Mark Kowalewski fought and won a battle against the feds.

Like other communities, Wyandotte has two designations when it comes to flood plains: A 100-year flood plain, which has about a 1-percent chance of flooding in any given year, and a 500-year flood plain, which has about a 0.2-percent chance of flooding.

Going back to 1974, the city has operated with the same designated flood plains, despite a revised study from the Army Corps of Engineers done in 1988 that did not alter the designations.

But in 2006, Kowalewski said he got word from FEMA that, citing the same 1980s study that did not amend any flood plain designations at the time, the government was going to greatly expand the designated area along the Ecorse Creek, meaning thousands of homeowners who had never before had to buy flood insurance would have been required to do so.

Two years later, FEMA opted to remove the areas near the Ecorse Creek, but instead added a large parcel of land near the Detroit River. That parcel includes neighborhoods and businesses, including the city’s largest taxpayer, BASF.

Had the designation stood, everyone in the targeted area would have had to buy flood insurance. Not only would that have forced many people to dig deep into their wallets, it also could have impacted future development in the city, such as a possibly expansion at BASF.

“(The Army Corps of Engineers) report even says there’s not enough evidence,” Kowalewski said. “The data is insignificant. ... I said, ‘Fine. Don’t change my maps.’ This would have cost (affected) homeowners about $1,400 a year.”

At that point, however, it was up to the city to prove the designations should not be made. That’s exactly what the city did with an independent study conducted by Applied Science of Detroit. That study was completed in November 2009. It still took more than a year for FEMA to agree not to change the flood plain designations.

"I’m still waiting on a refund to pay for that study,” joked Kowalewski, “but I guess it’s not coming.”

While FEMA has assured Kowalewski that the flood plain designations will not change, final maps showing the approved 100- and 500-year designations will not be completed and available at until all of Wayne County has been finalized.

Kowalewski said being proactive, rather than reactive, was key here.

“Once it’s on the map, it’s hard to get it off," he said. "So I knew we needed to nip this in the bud."