THE UNIFIED FLOOD INSURANCE PROMOTION PLAN

The County has been actively participating in the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) since 1992. The CRS program provides flood insurance premium reductions to participating communities. The reductions are based on the community’s floodplain management programs, which include the promotion of flood insurance activities.

In 2022 Sarasota County initiated the Flood Insurance Promotion Plan (FIPP), a Federal Emergency Management Agency planning tool, to coordinate outreach efforts throughout the county.

The County’s purpose in developing this plan was to:

• To review the flood insurance needs of the entire county
• Notify residents in areas where flood insurance policies are low and/or flood risk is high
• Ensure that county residents are resilient in the face of flooding events
• To provide a unified message throughout the county and municipalities, pertaining to flood insurance promotion

Working together with our communities makes us all more resilient and developed through the Unified PPI Committee, the FIPP was adopted in December 2022. The committee is comprised of government staff from each municipality as well as stakeholders. The stakeholders are made up of Flood Insurance Agents, Lenders, Real Estate Agents, as well as local neighborhood associations and Mote Marine. Meetings are held quarterly and are open to the public.

This plan is part of Sarasota County’s overall Floodplain Management Plan, which is part of Sarasota County’s Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS). The LMS is a state-approved multi-jurisdictional, multi-hazard plan that serves not only unincorporated Sarasota County, but also the City of Sarasota, the City of Venice, the City of North Port, and the Town of Longboat Key. The geographic and jurisdictional scope of the Sarasota County FIPP includes all these communities within Sarasota County. This unified FIPP provides all communities within Sarasota County messaging about flood, flood safety, and natural floodplain functions in a coordinated and efficient manner. This unified PPI plan was created following the outline in the 2017 Community Rating System manual.

The plan is fully updated and readopted every 5 years. An evaluation report is due annually where the committee reviews the projects outlined in the plan and updates them based on their effectiveness. New projects are added and others are either revised or eliminated if deemed unfeasible.

For more information on the Flood Insurance Promotion Plan call (941) 861-5000.

Sarasota County Government in conjunction with the City of North Port, City of Sarasota, City of Venice, and Town of Longboat Key has produced a model brochure for prospective purchasers of flood-prone property that provides them with information about flood hazards. This brochure is meant to be distributed or used by realtors and lenders within Sarasota County, to inform buyers about all potential flood hazards to their home. Florida communities that adapt the brochure for their local flood conditions can receive reduced flood insurance premiums for NFIP flood policies, provided it is distributed by local real estate agents. It is available as a template HERE.