You Can Depend on ASFPM Legal Resources!  

Given the title of this month’s column, I almost feel like I should include some sort of disclaimer that this is not legal advice…blah, blah, blah. But really this just an opportunity for me to tell one of my favorite stories and highlight a few ASFPM resources that you might not know about.

Let me start waaayy back…as in the summer of 1998. Here I was an excited, recently married, new county planner and floodplain manager starting my new job in a rural Ohio county. One morning I received a call from one of our township zoning inspectors whom I had just met letting me know that there was a crazy guy on a bulldozer down in the floodplain who had pulled a mobile home onto some property that was deep in the floodplain. With nervous excitement, I drove out to the site to see what was happening and let the person know that he needed to get permits, comply with standards, you know the drill. Although he promised to follow-up; he never did and eventually ended up needing to take the case to court.

Now the assistant county prosecutor who was assigned to provide legal assistance to our planning office was a really nice guy but he had no experience dealing with a court case involving violation of land use, floodplain, or environmental standards. He certainly had experience with domestic disputes, theft, and serious crimes; but as many of you know, land use cases are different. At the same time, he had an open mind and was eager to learn. That is where my early familiarity with ASFPM helped. Having previously worked in the state’s floodplain management program I was aware of some of the legal resources ASFPM had at the time including, Common Legal Questions Pertaining to the Use of Floodplains and Wetlands. With the ASFPM legal resources, both the prosecutor and I literally learned the case law, legal theories and, ultimately, decided the best way to approach this case. More importantly, the ASFPM resources gave him the confidence that he could be successful. Ultimately, we were successful in getting injunctive relief and were able to get the structure removed. I have to admit it did help our case that the violator was really ornery to the judge, which was definitely not helpful to his defense.

For as long as I can remember, ASFPM has been providing legal resources to help local floodplain managers be successful in the jobs they do—whether it be pursuing cases in court or better understanding the legality of higher floodplain management standards. A recent ASFPM survey indicated that the two most important legal tools/information that would be useful for communities to better manage flood risk are: legal analyses of key cases and updated case law and citations. It was a huge need back in 1998 and is still a need now. Fortunately, ASFPM has been periodically updating its legal resources and once again, through ASFPM’s Flood Science Center and NAI Committee, we are undertaking a project to keep this research current. We’ll have more information on the project soon, so stay tuned! But what I can tell you though, is that as part of this project, we’ve recently built out one of the real hidden gems of our website – our online Legal Library Special Collection. Now you can easily find all of the past legal resources that ASFPM has produced by going to the ASFPM Library and clicking on the Legal Library link under the “special library collections” section on the left side of the page.

As a local floodplain manager and now a member of the ASFPM staff, I have come to value the tools and resources ASFPM develops to help floodplain managers. The work our local floodplain managers do every day to ensure that thousands of development decisions are made wisely and protect public health and safety is important, even if that means needing to pursue the occasional court case. ASFPM will continue to update our legal resources so that you can find success in the legal arena and keep our nation resilient from the hazard of flooding.