A lagoon in Brick Township. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Brick Township residents who carry flood insurance will receive a larger discount off their premiums this year thanks to an upgrade in the township’s anti-flooding measures.
Mayor John Ducey said Thursday that Brick was recently improved to a Class 5 community in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System, commonly known as CRS. The improvement is a result of the township’s floodplain management efforts, and will give a 25 percent discount to residents who are paying flood insurance premiums. The new discount is up from the previous 20 percent the township received for its homeowners.
Brick Township, for years, did not participate in the CRS. Getting into the system was a major goal of Ducey’s when he took office, and Joanne Bergin, the township’s then-new business administrator, had previous experience leading a town into the program. Brick was originally entered into the CRS as a Class 6 community in 2016. The improvement to a Class 5 community increases the discount that residents who pay flood insurance premiums will ultimately receive to 25 percent.
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“Getting Brick Township into the Community Rating System was an enormous accomplishment,” Ducey said in an e-mail. “We have many homeowners in Brick Township who have to pay flood insurance and our staff worked hard to make sure we met the requirements of the program.”
The CRS program was implemented in 1990 as a voluntary initiative for recognizing and encouraging community floodplain management activities exceeding the minimizing NFIP standards. Under the CRS, flood insurance premiums rates are discounted to required community actions that reduce flood damage to insurable properties, strengthen and support the insurance aspects of the NFIP and encourage a comprehensive approach to floodplain management. Brick was entered into the system for adopting compliant building standards, improving streets and drainage in flood-prone areas and passing ordinances that handle stormwater management procedures.
Brick, in particular, achieved its Class 5 rating for by completing new studies such as Flood Warning and Response Plan, increasing open space preservation in the floodplain and documenting compliance with floodplain regulations. Most notably, the township has reduced the number of non-compliant repetitive loss properties from 102 to 68.
After a municipality is entered into the program, meeting new benchmarks can improve its rating – an accomplishment to which Ducey credited his staff.
“They did not stop working to find ways to improve our rating and help those homeowners save even more money on their flood insurance,” he said. “The improvement in our rating is a reflection on the dedication and knowledge of our staff, particularly our Land Use and Engineering staff. I commend them for their efforts and I am confident they will continue to work to earn more credits and hopefully improve our rating even further.”
