Sierra County Board of Supervisors was updated on the FEMA mapping debacle. What began over a decade ago is nearing conclusion.
The mapping of the Sierra Valley floodplain has been desperately needed and was picked back up in 2018 to map all of the Sierra Valley on both the Plumas and Sierra County sides. Yet due to technical issues, it became a start-and-stop process as shared by the planning department during the board’s October 4th meeting. Just 10 months ago, the first preliminary maps were released to the county that opened a 30-day commenting period.
During this time grave concerns over the mapping were brought to light with little to no response from FEMA. It wasn’t until recently that some resolution was finally given to calm the board and county’s concerns. FEMA responded on September 17th to share they recognize the problems with the mapping models and will be back out to create new ones.
The planning department said while no maps are in their hands at the moment the good news is that Sierra Brooks, Sierraville, and the City of Loyalton will soon have a presentation on newly proposed and hopefully accurate mapping by this time next year.
