Community Assistance : Appeals & Protest
Grounds Anderson, LLC brings stakeholders together through Information Fairs, Public Meetings, Conferences, and Workshops. We can develop the appropriate content for the audience and explain highly technical or mundane content the lay public. We have facilitated the acquisition of meeting space, audio-visual equipment, meals and coffee breaks, and special needs of attendees and speakers. Our personnel have been local, state, and national leaders in professional societies such as AWRA, TFMA, and ASCE that specialize in communication related to water resources and flood plain management.
Community Assistance Visits and Floodplain Management 101 (TCEQ FY 2004)
As a subcontractor to Halff Associates, Grounds Anderson conducted NFIP research and prepared the TCEQ Floodplain Management 101 Power Point series (16 modules) which included sections on FEMA Map Reading, Digital Flood Insurance Studies, Grant Options, Ordinances, Community Assistance Visits and Community Assistance Contacts, Community Rating System, Elevation Certificates, NFIP, Floodproofing, FEMA Map Amendments, Substantial Damage Improvements, Map Modernization and more. We were responsible for authoring the modules and preparing the Workshop Manual for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This Workshop Manual is currently being distributed throughout the State of Texas by the Texas State NFIP Coordinator and has become the floodplain management benchmark for teaching in Texas. Upon completion of the technical manual, GROUNDS ANDERSON taught one-day workshops on Floodplain Management 101 to NFIP communities throughout the State of Texas including Houston, San Antonio and Laredo. During this contract, Halff Associates and Grounds Anderson conducted Community Assistance Visits (CAVs) for eighteen (18) major cities located throughout Texas. GROUNDS ANDERSON was responsible for visits to Lufkin, Coldspring, College Station, Dickinson, Palestine and Bryan, Texas.
Appeals and Protest Period for FEMA Flood Insurance Study
Grounds Anderson assisted the Harris County Flood Control District with an unprecedented Public Appeals Period for the 35 communities within Harris County, Texas. Employees at GROUNDS ANDERSON played an integral part in the FEMA Flood Insurance Study, the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP), therefore they were well prepared to support in the next phase of the project. Grounds Anderson joined forces with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Michael Baker Jr. Inc. to streamline the Public Appeals process for the Fourth largest city in the United States. As Project Manager for this effort Grounds Anderson was responsible for developing Technical Appeal and Protest Summary forms. These forms were made available to the public on the project website. These forms requested that the appellant/protestant submit the following information: Contact Information, Stream Mile Data, Special Flood Hazard Area Data, Supporting Data and Floodplain Delineation. Grounds Anderson was also responsible for creating documentation that described the appeals/protest period, when to submit a technical appeal or protest, how to look up a flood map, information about flood insurance and other project specific information. Grounds Anderson worked closely with the web services firm, to make sure that all of this information was easily accessible to the public. Grounds Anderson was actively involved in the Public Information Fairs. They facilitated these meetings with community officials, engineers, developers and the public, and provided support in interacting with the public and answering their questions about the new Special Flood Hazard Areas Maps, locating properties on the DFIRMs, flood insurance questions and other technical briefings. Grounds Anderson worked closely with HCFCD to assist residents in early review of the Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate maps including dedicated phone banks, detailed documentation on the project website and interactive special flood hazard area look-up maps at www.tsarp.org. Idea Integration was responsible for the development of the project website and DFIRM look-up tool. Grounds Anderson managed the review of the Public Appeals Period for the Harris County Flood Control District. Over 250 appeals and protests were submitted in Harris County and Grounds Anderson led coordination and consensus meetings with Michael Baker personnel to facilitate the rapid review of Appeals and Protests. Grounds Anderson assisted the public in preparing technically relevant and complete submissions to FEMA. Grounds Anderson provided technical modeling support and the development of DFIRMs to FEMA standards for the community. During the review of this information, Grounds Anderson was responsible for integrating the various data formats into seamless geodatabase that met FEMA DFIRM mapping standards.