Newport Beach has persuaded the Federal Emergency Management Agency to exclude about 2,700 properties in the coastal part of Newport Bech from updated flood maps, saving homeowners thousands, it was reported Monday.
As a result, homeowners in parts of the Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island and West Newport won’t need pricey flood insurance, saving up to about $3,700 each, or $10 million combined, each year in premiums, the city estimates, the Los Angeles Times reported.
City staff worked on the rollback for two years, showing FEMA that municipal infrastructure such as seawalls and sand berms on the beach protected more of the waterfront and adjacent neighborhoods than the federal agency’s models predicted.
Initially, FEMA added more than 3,000 Newport Beach properties to expanded flood zones when it revised its maps in 2016, more than doubling the number of affected properties, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Staff reviewed Newport’s rebuttal analysis with the City Council last year and updated its progress in July, revealing that FEMA accepted revisions that knocked the total number of properties needing flood insurance from about 4,500 to about 1,800, a reduction of 60 percent.
The last flood insurance study before this one was done in the late 1980s. The difference is most visible on Balboa Island, all of which has been in a designated flood zone for decades.
The city this year added nine-inch concrete caps to Balboa Island’s publicly maintained seawalls, which are about 80 to 90 years old, at a cost of about 1.8 million dollars to get a few more years out of the barriers. A long-term plan shows the city building full new walls over several years starting in 2026.