Cape Coral looking to increase their FEMA flood insurance discount

The City of Cape Coral got good news from FEMA; the 25% flood insurance discount is staying in place.

“Hearing those words was just a sigh of relief and a little bit of excitement,” said Michael Ilczyszyn, Cape Coral’s city manager. “I know what it means to our residents and our businesses.”

This discount will benefit 50,000 structures and 70,000 parcels, but city leaders are aiming for a 30% discount from FEMA.

Leaders plan to develop policy recommendations and present them to the city council at the next Committee of the Whole meeting.

“If they move forward, implementing those as a policy directive across the city and in our special flood hazard area, we believe very firmly we will achieve an even greater rating out of this,” Ilczyszyn said.

Some of those policy recommendations include resiliency grants, increasing base flood elevation for new construction, improving impact windows and doors and strengthening the roofs of businesses.

Sofia Saiz, Cape Coral’s floodplain manager, says the city is committed to community resilience.

“By investing in flood risk reduction, we’re safeguarding lives and property today while preparing for future flooding events through responsible management,” she said.

“We can’t stop the rain from coming, but once that surge goes back, we can get back to business and get our community reestablished as quickly as possible,” said Ryan Lamb, the city’s Emergency Management Resilience Director.

Cape Coral is also leading the charge in helping other counties remain compliant with the National Flood Insurance Program.

Most recently, they’ve assisted Pinellas, Hernando and Taylor counties.

“I’m extremely proud of the team,” Saiz said. “I think we’re making some really good changes to how we handle our floodplain, and we’re looking out for the residents to ensure that the community is resilient to the standards today and from future flooding as well.”

“We have actually taken everything that we’ve learned, and we are, in real-time, building a new model for floodplain resilience and floodplain assistance throughout the state with the Florida Department of Emergency Management and with FEMA,” Ilczyszyn said.

Based on Cape Coral’s documentation, the city says FEMA acknowledged that their compliance employees should have been involved within the first 180 days after Hurricane Ian.

FEMA is also changing how they look at compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program.

FEMA will now provide post-disaster help and post-disaster technical assistance instead of just post-disaster compliance.

By being involved earlier after a disaster, FEMA says they will help to build a more resilient Florida.

Cape Coral will retain the 25% flood insurance discount for the next three years, but the city can pre-certify earlier to try to get the 30% discount.