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Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Federal officials are praising a program in Hull that gives owners of waterfront property an incentive to create additional “freeboard” to guard against coastal flooding.
The 2-year-old program, developed under a grant from the state Office of Coastal Zone Management, encourages property owners to raise the foundation of new construction by at least two feet above what is required by state and federal flood zone rules. By doing so, the owners get a discount of up to $500 on building permit fees.
The permit savings are just part of the benefit, however. “The really significant savings are in flood insurance,” said Hull Conservation Administrator Anne Herbst. “People may save a few thousand dollars a year.”
According to state figures, a home near the shoreline that is not raised so water can flow beneath it pays about $5,500 in annual flood insurance. The same property is charged roughly $2,730 per year if it has two feet of “freeboard.” Three feet of freeboard further reduces the annual premium to $2,084.
Out of 18 Hull property owners who were planning to build new waterfront homes or increase the freeboard on existing homes since the program began, 15 took advantage of the incentive, Herbst said. Many of the property owners chose to use three feet of freeboard, in order to maximize the insurance savings and to make it more likely that their properties will be safe over the long term.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has identified the Hull program as a “Best Practice.” The program is also a recipient of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Walter Jones Memorial Award for Excellence in Local Government.
A statement from the Hull Conservation Department says the incentive program was developed “in the interests of protecting the health and safety of Hull citizens, preventing property damage, and reducing the need for costly emergency services during storm events.”
Sea levels rose by an average of about three-quarters of an inch per decade during the period from 1961 to 2003, but in recent years the rate has been increasing markedly. Recent data suggest that the increase over the next 100 years will be more than two feet, according to Herbst.
Hull, a narrow peninsula that juts into Massachusetts Bay, has 27 miles of shoreline, much of which is densely developed.