Anoka County plotted its own route to update flood maps

Every other county in the Twin Cities metro area is scheduled to receive updated flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. What happened to the new maps for Anoka County?

The updated maps detect land with the potential for flooding, but some Anoka County residents may not see maps of their areas until after summer's stormiest season while other residents see maps in their areas months earlier -- because of a decades-old decision by the Anoka County board to let municipalities seeking new flood-plain maps work individually with federal and state agencies.

No other county in the metro area works this way with FEMA. Other counties share countywide information with FEMA, said Suzanne Jiwani, a flood-plain mapping hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

But Anoka County is required to work with FEMA only in getting updated maps for the county's townships -- and right now there are two, Linwood Township and Burns Township, which will soon become a city.

The cities within the county are on their own.

That's not a bad deal for the cities, explained Spencer Pierce, manager of the county's environmental services.

"The cities know their individual concerns best, and they can act immediately when they think it's necessary," Pierce said.

It's even more personal than that. When developers make proposals, city personnel lead the way in getting the updated map, for which the developers pay any fees, said Tom Scott, project coordinator in Blaine's engineering department.

Those fees can range from nothing to several thousands of dollars, depending on location and development schedule, Scott said.

"The developers propose something, we're aware of the applications being made and we assist [developers] as much as we can," Scott said. "For developers, it's part of the site approval."

A few years ago, there were requests for updated maps in the Columbus area, in preparation for the building of the recently opened Running Aces harness track, Pierce said. More often, the county or city gets involved if a resident is about to refinance a home or move and an insurance company says flood insurance is needed because the house is in a flood zone.

"The cities are responsible for zoning," Pierce said. "They have an advantage when it comes to providing information to the people updating these maps."

As for Linwood Township, Pierce noted, "There's not a lot of buildable property there anyway. We don't get a lot of requests for that in Linwood Township."

Longtime County Commissioner Dan Erhart said he doesn't know why Anoka County handles the updating of flood maps differently.

"The cities do the zoning and control what's built there," Erhart said. "To have the county come in and try to control things would only set up an adversarial relationship. I think we're handling these flood plain maps in a sensible way."

Although Anoka County boasts massive wetlands and includes the Rice Creek and Coon Creek Watershed Districts, the concern for flooding pales with other areas of the state.