An eight-year effort to update the county's flood maps could eventually raise insurance rates for many people who own land near the waterfront when the process wraps up late next year.

But that's not what's causing Bill Pence's flood insurance to almost quadruple this month. Pence, who lives just west of the Intracoastal Waterway, received a letter in May stating that his flood insurance would increase from $348 to $1,317 when his policy is renewed this month.

While the letter attributes the increase to the new flood maps, Pence's insurance is actually increasing for a different reason: His property was incorrectly classified as a "preferred risk," a low-risk category, when he got his insurance in the early 1990s. Flood zone recertification -- which is now required as part of the new remapping process -- caught the mistake that has saved Pence thousands of dollars over the years.

Pence's case gives a glimpse of the complex process of updating the county's 20-year-old flood zone maps and the surprises that some property owners may face if their property is reclassified.

Jacksonville is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to revise flood risks for individual properties based on construction and 2007 topographical information. Owners of about 300,000 properties in Duval County will learn that their flood risk is higher or lower than they thought, Jacksonville officials said. It's unclear how many of them live at the Beaches or along the Intracoastal Waterway.

Once the new information becomes available, which is projected to occur in the fall, Jacksonville will mail letters to property owners whose risk changes. A series of public hearings will take place in Duval County next year to educate and prepare the public and to set up an appeals process. Then the Jacksonville City Council will be asked to approve the maps.

St. Johns County isn't participating in the nationwide flood hazard map update because its maps were updated in 2004, said county spokeswoman Karen Pan.

Based on new mapping systems already adopted in FEMA's Southeastern region, which involves eight states including Florida, an equal number of property owners have moved into higher risk flood zones as moved out of them, said Susan Wilson, chief of FEMA's flood plain management and insurance branch in Atlanta.


The new maps will be digitized and Internet-accessible and will provide much better defined topographic information, she said. While the older maps gave topographic data in 10-15 feet intervals, the new maps will provide that data in two- or three-foot intervals, she said.

Preliminary models of the new flood maps in Duval County were recently placed online. They are available at www.mappingtherisk.com. But FEMA still has to evaluate them and may readjust them, city officials said.

Don Bass, an independent agent for Cecil W. Powell and Co. which insures Pence's property, said Pence's land was incorrectly classified in the X zone, known as a "preferred risk" zone, an area where there is a low-to-moderate chance of flooding.

"He was misrated in X from the get-go," Bass said. "He has saved thousands of dollars in flood insurance."

The recertification showed Pence's property has for two decades been in the AE zone, a higher-risk zone. Bass said the insurer would send another letter to Pence apologizing for misleading him about the basis for his increase.

Mark Pate, an engineering technician with Jacksonville's Public Works Department whom Pence contacted for assistance, confirmed that Pence's property is in the high-risk flood zone area.

The "preferred risk" policy is a highly discounted flood insurance policy for low-to-moderate flood risk areas, Wilson said. It has been available about 25 years.

Last year, FEMA adopted an "eligibility recertification" which means that each time a preferred risk policy comes up for renewal the insurer had to verify that flood maps showed the property was in a low-to-moderate flood risk area, Wilson said.

"It's something the agency thought that the insurance companies should have been doing it all along," she said.

She said the insurance company is obligated to correct a policy when it has been misrated.

Caren Burmeister can also be reached at (904) 249-4947, ext. 6321.