A request submitted to the Taney County Commission indicates that portions of some Branson Landing buildings are located within the current 100 year flood plain. At the Aug. 27 meeting of the Taney County Commission Eddie Coxie, Assistant Administrator, Taney County Planning and Zoning, presented a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, by HCW Development Company, LLC, HCW, for a revision of, 100 year flood plain map for area encompassing the Branson Landing project. Taney County’s review of the request is part of the normal processing of such requests.
The request, called a Letter of Map Revision, LOMR, was based on information complied by the engineering firm of Olsson Associates and contained a letter of support from the city of Branson and a letter of no objection from the city of Hollister as attachments. In an interview after the presentation, Coxie said, “This is a pretty common situation.” He went on to point out that the process could result in more definite elevations for the reference points used by FEMA to determine the 100 year flood plain.
According to the letter of support for the LOMR issued by the city of Branson on July 25, and signed by it’s attorney, Paul D. Link, if the LOMR is granted, the net effect will be that some of the buildings at the Branson Landing “will be removed from the floodplain but several others will not be.” The letter goes no to point out that the lower portion of the buildings remaining in the flood plain, such as parking garages, loading docks, and storage areas, “will require additional dry or wet flood proofing documentation in order to bring them into compliance with the City’s floodplain ordinances.”
Planning Director for the city of Branson, Don Stephens, said that each of the buildings covered by the LOMR is currently being used and occupied under the terms of Temporary Certificates of Occupancy, TCO. Each TCO contains a list of specific issues that must be resolved before a permanent Certificate of Occupancy will be issued. Stephens said, “None of the issues addressed in the Temporary Certificates of Occupancy are life safety issues.”
The Temporary Certificates of Occupancy were issued pursuant to a “White Box Construction & Completion Agreement” between the city of Branson and HCW Development, LLC. They were issued for a year and will begin to expire at various times beginning in the October November time frame. Stephens said that permanent Certificates of Occupancy will only be issued when the issues listed on the Temporary Certificates of Occupancy have been satisfied.
Rick Huffman, President and CEO of HCW said, “As soon a FEMA reviews the application [LOMR] they will report back what items need to be flood proofed as well as the new flood plain map revisions.”
