FEMA needs a LOMA

I have had an educational few days on the home building front. Let me share with you some of the things I have learned, and some of the things I did not understand.

You can interview many architects, and pick one who fits all your criteria. You can hire the most amazing and beloved surveyor in the history of Hull, who is an expert at surveying water front properties and wooing town building inspectors. You can be completely assured that your property is not in Flood Zone A, and not only do you not need to build on piers, you can have a basement (hooray!!!!). You can pay said surveyor many dollars. You can pay said architect many, many dollars. But, if the Con Comm says you need a LOMA because the FEMA map on paper looks different than the digital version of the FEMA map on MASSGIS, you better get out your checkbook! ... even if on-the-ground mapping does a better job of indicating the actual flood zone. So there. Did'ya get all that? Yeah? Neither did I.

Glossary

Architect: cool person who can listen to all your cool ideas and put them on cool really big pieces of paper that other building type people can read. I can also read them if I remember that 1/4 inch equals 1 foot, so far that is a difficult concept for me.

Surveyor: Cool person that can use nifty equipment to prove whether you can have a basement. Also handy for crying to when Con Comm says no. Can also be used to file a LOMA and communicate with Con Comm.

Con Comm: Conservation Commission. Handy for telling you you can't have a basement unless you file a LOMA. Also handy for protecting green space (might have been a good idea to start about 100 years ago in Hull when green space probably still existed) and wishing you would not add an addition to your house to preserve more of said green space. They apparently do not agree with the building department about how much of your property should be house, even though half of your property is in the ocean and cannot be built on. They would probably not approve of our neighbor who puts his grass clippings in the ocean, either. But, I'm not telling. Or putting my grass clippings in the ocean.

FEMA: government organization that does not approve of stupid people building their houses in the water and crying when the floods come. They also try to avoid states of emergency caused by floods in stupid people's neighborhoods which result in large monetary reimbursements. Good job, you!

LOMA: yeah, still not really sure. But, I know it is something which would change the flood zone classification in my yard. Which would also change the amount I have to pay for flood insurance (which is substantial). Also, something my surveyor can file for me (for a price). Also, something we are going to file, but not going to wait for. Bring on the FEMA approved foundation and the engineer to design it. Hooray!

MASSGIS: no idea. Please inform me if you do.