§ 4105 — Disaster Mitigation Requirements; Notification To Flood-prone Areas

(a) Not later than six months following December 31, 1973, the Administrator shall publish information in accordance with section 4101(1) of this title, and shall notify the chief executive officer of each known flood-prone community not already participating in the national flood insurance program of its tentative identification as a community containing one or more areas having special flood hazards. (b) After such notification, each tentatively identified community shall either (1) promptly make proper application to participate in the national flood insurance program or (2) within six months submit technical data sufficient to establish to the satisfaction of the Administrator that the community either is not seriously flood prone or that such flood hazards as may have existed have been corrected by flood-works or other flood control methods. The Administrator may, in his discretion, grant a public hearing to any community with respect to which conflicting data exist as to the nature and extent of a flood hazard. If the Administrator decides not to hold a hearing, the community shall be given an opportunity to submit written and documentary evidence. Whether or not such hearing is granted, the Administrator’s final determination as to the existence or extent of a flood hazard area in a particular community shall be deemed conclusive for the purposes of this Act if supported by substantial evidence in the record considered as a whole. (c) As information becomes available to the Administrator concerning the existence of flood hazards in communities not known to be flood prone at the time of the initial notification provided for by subsection (a) of this section he shall provide similar notifications to the chief executive officers of such additional communities, which shall then be subject to the requirements of subsection (b) of this section. (d) Formally identified flood-prone communities that do not qualify for the national flood insurance program within one year after such notification or by the date specified in section 4106 of this title, whichever is later, shall thereafter be subject to the provisions of that section relating to flood-prone communities which are not participating in the program. (e) The Administrator is authorized to establish administrative procedures whereby the identification under this section of one or more areas in the community as having special flood hazards may be appealed to the Administrator by the community or any owner or lessee of real property within the community who believes his property has been inadvertently included in a special flood hazard area by the identification. When, incident to any appeal under this subsection, the owner or lessee of real property or the community, as the case may be, incurs expense in connection with the services of surveyors, engineers, or similar services, but not including legal services, in the effecting of an appeal which is successful in whole or part, the Administrator shall reimburse such individual or community to an extent measured by the ratio of the successful portion of the appeal as compared to the entire appeal and applying such ratio to the reasonable value of all such services, but no reimbursement shall be made by the Administrator in respect to any fee or expense payment, the payment of which was agreed to be contingent upon the result of the appeal. There is authorized to be appropriated for purposes of implementing this subsection not to exceed $250,000.