Related: Briny Breezes: Town to allow elevated new homes in compliance with FEMA regulations
I have been a property owner in Ocean Ridge now for 40 years and in Briny Breezes for more than 20 years. Change has been gradual in both communities over those decades, mainly because most of the homes had already been built by the time Mary Kate and I moved here. In addition to the replace-ment of existing homes with more modern and bigger ones, the biggest change I have seen in our coastal communities is the increase in seasonal flooding.
Decades ago, as a working photojournalist, it was a challenge for me to capture an interesting photo during king tides, because the impact was so minimal. Back then, talk of “global warming” was dismissed by many residents.
Now I simply have to consult the tide tables to know the exact date and time that I can photograph neighborhood flooding. And “sea level rise” has become part of our everyday vocabulary and part of every community’s long-term planning.
In just the past year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has enacted new building regulations requiring a much higher base floor elevation for most new coastal homes.
That’s why you are seeing piles of fill on traditional residential construction projects from Boca Raton to Lantana. The fill is easy to place with a half-acre lot, much harder under a 400-square-foot mobile home.
Briny Breezes is taking a huge step forward in dealing with these new FEMA standards. As a co-op of owners of mobile homes, the town adds a corporate board to the oversight by federal and state regulations and by town ordinances. In March, that board approved the installation of new mobile homes — and replacement of existing ones — with elevated homes.
Many of the mobileunits in Briny Breezes have been on their lots for 40 or 50 years and most of the 242 lots on the west side of State Road A1A, where the elevated homes will be permitted, have standing water in their yards and access roads twice a day during king tides.
By allowing homeowners to elevate newly installed modular homes up to 10 feet, Briny will add decades to the life of the community. It will ensure FEMA compliance and will lead to the modernization of the aging housing stock.
Over time the town of Briny Breezes plans to improve the drainage system of the community and increase the height of the sea walls along the Intracoastal Waterway — and road heights as well. The elevated homes being approved today will help that process in the future.
— Jerry Lower
Publisher
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