What residents have been told about FEMA’s flood rules, the Town’s flood rating and the Coastal Highway building, set beside what the records show.
Coastal Stewards of Delaware · October 25, 2026
The short answer. Dewey Beach’s flood rules are FEMA’s rules, written into the Town’s own code as Chapter 101. On June 1, 2026, Delaware’s flood office warned the Town in writing that the new Coastal Highway building’s residential garages and entrance stair had been dry floodproofed in a way the rules do not permit, and that a failure to enforce can bring FEMA probation or suspension. Ten days later the Town issued the building’s certificate of occupancy. It has not answered the letter.
Why every resident should care. FEMA suspension stops federal flood insurance from being sold or renewed (44 CFR 59.24). FEMA probation adds $50 a year to every flood-insurance policy in town (931 policies) and sends notice to every policyholder; Dewey’s 741 flood-rating points are already the fewest of any coastal town in Delaware.
The fix is in the Town’s hands. The floodplain procedure the Town Manager signed on September 15, 2026 says an approval that “may have been issued in error … will be reviewed promptly and documented” (procedure, § 10).
How to read this. Each row gives what residents have heard, with who said it and when, then what the Town’s own records, the State’s and FEMA’s letters and FEMA’s published rules show. Every fact links to its source. Elected officials are identified by office. Where the Town has a fair point, it is noted.
The Coastal Highway building
The new mixed-use building on Coastal Highway has four two-story homes above ground-floor shops. The homes’ garages and entrance stair are on the ground floor, below the flood level, and are protected by removable flood barriers (dry floodproofing) rather than built to let floodwater pass through. Most questions start here.
| What you may hear | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Residents can get out: there are knobs on the inside of the barriers that they can turn to open them. The Town Manager’s account, as passed on to a resident, October 24, 2026. | An exit that has to be unscrewed is not an exit. The fire code Delaware enforces, NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code, requires doors on the way out to open without a key, a tool, or special knowledge or effort; working a flood panel loose in a storm, possibly in the dark, is the effort that rule is meant to prevent. The answer also confirms that the barriers stand across the residents’ own entrance. FEMA’s Technical Bulletin 3 limits dry floodproofing to non-residential space, requires an enclosed entrance to homes below the flood level to meet the rules for enclosures (flood openings and flood-resistant materials) instead, and says dry-floodproofed buildings should not be occupied during flood conditions. In the September 23–28, 2026 nor’easter, barriers were bolted across all four residential garage bays and the residents’ only ground-level entrance. A barrier opened during a flood lets the water in. Sources: FEMA Technical Bulletin 3 (2021), §§ 1.3, 5.3, 5.4 · Delaware State Fire Prevention Regulations, 2026 update (adopts NFPA 101, 2024 edition) · Nor’easter video, September 27, 2026 |
| The garages and stairways “do NOT meet the definition of Residential.” The Town’s floodplain consultant, final-inspection letter, June 4, 2026. The certificate of occupancy was issued on that basis a week later. | Every other Town document calls them residential. The 2022 permit application: “a private residential garage.” Council’s 2022 approval: “the residential garages are not enclosed.” The 2024 permit: “NO ENCLOSED RESIDENTIAL GARAGES.” The Board of Adjustment’s variance of November 5, 2025, granted while the Town’s own Stop Work Order was in effect: “four enclosed residential garages.” The certificate of occupancy of June 11, 2026 still reads “NO ENCLOSED RESIDENTIAL GARAGES.” The Town’s Building Official wrote on September 16, 2025: “FEMA does not allow Dry Floodproofing for residential use dwellings.” The only floodproofing certificate on file is FEMA’s form for non-residential structures, marked “Mixed Use.” FEMA’s instructions on that form require a separate certification for residential portions, and the Town confirmed on September 23, 2026 that it “does not exist.” Sources: consultant’s letter, June 4, 2026 · permit application (permit file p. 161) · Council minutes, December 16, 2022 · permit placard (p. 98) · Cape Gazette, November 16, 2025 · certificate of occupancy (p. 1) · Building Official, September 16, 2025 · dry floodproofing certificate · FEMA Form FF-206-FY-22-153 instructions · Town FOIA Coordinator, September 23, 2026 |
| “FEMA compliance has been carefully examined by the Town.” The Town Solicitor to the Delaware Attorney General, March 11, 2026. | Two months earlier, FEMA Region III wrote, in general guidance, that “Local adoption of ASCE 24 (2014 or earlier editions) does not override NFIP minimums.” On March 20, Delaware’s flood office wrote to the Town Manager that a residential stair or lobby below the flood level, not shared with the shops, “must be flood vented.” On June 1 it told the Town that dry floodproofing “was installed in the residential garage and the residential foyer/access stair,” that this “shall not be permitted,” and that failure to enforce may result in “corrective actions by FEMA, including probation or suspension.” Ten days later the certificate of occupancy was signed by the Assistant Town Manager as Building Official. The Town has produced no reply to the State, and none of its key documents on the building cites its flood law, Chapter 101. The Town Manager had it right on March 27: “Please ensure all requirements are met before issuing the CO.” Sources: Town Solicitor to the Attorney General · FEMA Region III, January 7, 2026 · Delaware flood office, March 20, 2026 · Delaware flood office to the Town, June 1, 2026 · certificate of occupancy · Town Manager to staff, March 27, 2026 · Town’s statement that its FOIA production is complete, September 28, 2026 |
| The materials “may remain as installed and should be considered as compliant with ASCE 24-14 and IBC.” The Town’s consultant, November 16, 2025: the report on which the Town lifted its Stop Work Order. | Three weeks earlier, on October 23, 2025, the same consultant found the columns and stair lumber non-compliant and wrote that the columns should “be replaced with the appropriate and compliant materials.” On November 13 he walked the site “along with representatives of the owner and General Contractor, to determine a resolution to the FEMA issues.” Three days later he reversed every finding, noting that “All materials remained in place and un-modified.” On December 17 the owner’s attorney asked the Town to apply the 2014 edition of the ASCE standard, and the consultant told the Town, “I am in agreement with their request.” The next day the Town wrote, “The Town agrees with your request,” and lifted the order. On November 5 the Town Manager had written that the order “will not be removed until all items are corrected and inspected.” Nothing in the building had changed. Sources: consultant’s report, October 23, 2025 · consultant’s report, November 16, 2025 · owner’s attorney, December 17, 2025 · consultant to the Town, December 17, 2025 · Town letter lifting the order, December 18, 2025 · Town Manager, November 5, 2025 (FOIA 2026-29, p. 29) |
| A house split between flood zones “should be on the six, the most stringent.” The Town Manager, candidates forum, August 29, 2026. | That is the rule, and the Town applies it to homes: this year its consultant had a homeowner’s elevation certificate revised to AE-6 because “the EC should reflect the more restrictive of the two zones.” The Coastal Highway building straddles AE-5 and AE-6, and Delaware’s flood office wrote: “BFE is 6 feet (most restrictive applies when multiple BFEs are on one site).” The building’s finished elevation certificate enters a base flood elevation of 5, and its community-official section is blank. The Town’s own procedure lists “Failure to apply the most restrictive flood zone designation” as an error to be reviewed. Sources: forum transcript · homeowner’s certificate correspondence (FEMA/DNREC production pp. 36–38) · Delaware flood office, June 1, 2026 · finished elevation certificate, April 15, 2026 · Town floodplain procedure, § 10 |
| The Town’s Floodplain Administrator “is not empowered with enforcing any FEMA Technical Bulletin regulations,” and a review would be “a good public relations exercise, but not a mandated duty.” The consultant’s analysis, forwarded to a resident by the Assistant Town Manager, October 1, 2025. On December 23, 2025 the consultant wrote that Technical Bulletin 2 “is nullified.” | The Town’s own permit for the building says the work “shall comply with all applicable Town Codes, Sussex County Building Codes and FEMA Flood Plain Regulations/Technical Bulletins.” Chapter 101 itself points to Technical Bulletin 2 for the materials allowed below the flood level (§ 101-27B(2)). The Town Solicitor told the Attorney General that enforcing FEMA’s standards “is a local function,” one the Town “takes very seriously.” The procedure the Town Manager signed on September 15, 2026 is “informed by … FEMA Technical Bulletins referenced in Chapter 101.” FEMA Region III: local adoption of ASCE 24 “does not override NFIP minimums.” Sources: Assistant Town Manager, October 1, 2025 · consultant’s commentary, December 23, 2025 · permit placard · Chapter 101 · Town Solicitor to the Attorney General · Town floodplain procedure, § 2.5 · FEMA Region III, January 7, 2026 |
| Penalties are highly unlikely, because it is not the Town’s fault. The Town Manager’s account, as passed on to a resident, October 24, 2026. Also heard: it is one building, and it does not affect other residents. | That claim is contradicted by FEMA and DNREC’s own letters. FEMA’s flood program covers the whole town, and its rules do not ask whose fault a lapse was. Under 44 CFR 59.24(b), a community that “fails to adequately enforce” its floodplain rules is subject to probation: $50 added to every flood policy in town (931 policies in FEMA’s 2026 data, about $46,550 a year) and a notice to every policyholder. If the problem is not corrected, suspension follows, and federal flood insurance can no longer be sold or renewed in the town. The guide FEMA sent with its March 2025 compliance report names CRS retrograde, probation and suspension as the steps it can take when corrective action is not happening. Under Chapter 101 and the Town’s own procedure, the Floodplain Administrator responsible for enforcement is the Town Manager. Sources: 44 CFR 59.24 · FEMA NFIP Compliance Corrective Action Guide · CSDE compilation of FEMA CRS data · Town floodplain procedure, p. 130 |
| “It appears that each of the items noted in these emails has been rectified.” The Town’s consultant, in the analysis the Assistant Town Manager sent a resident on October 1, 2025. That fall a resident was also told in person that the builder had removed the non-compliant material. | Nothing had been removed. Three weeks later, on October 23, 2025, the same consultant found the columns and stair lumber non-compliant and wrote that the columns should “be replaced with the appropriate and compliant materials.” His November 16 report, on which the Town lifted its Stop Work Order, records that “All materials remained in place and un-modified.” The October 1 analysis also says, “I don’t have the 2014 edition of ASCE 24,” the edition the Town agreed in December 2025 to apply to this building. Sources: Assistant Town Manager, October 1, 2025 · consultant’s report, October 23, 2025 · consultant’s report, November 16, 2025 · Town letter lifting the order, December 18, 2025 |
| My house was built years ago and meets the rules, so none of this affects me. Heard in Dewey Beach, December 2025. | Partly right. An existing home does not have to be brought up to today’s flood rules unless it is substantially improved or substantially damaged: work or damage costing 50 percent or more of the building’s market value. Since April 2026 the Town adds up all improvements made in the five years before a permit, so phased renovations count. The rules bear hardest on new construction, which is why the new Coastal Highway building matters. But how the Town enforces them reaches every policyholder: FEMA probation would add $50 a year to each of the 931 flood policies in town, and the Town’s flood rating sets the discount on policies across town. Sources: Town Code § 1-16, definitions · Ordinance 877-2026 · Town Code § 101-12 · 44 CFR 59.24 · CSDE guide to Chapter 101 |
Who decides, and what the Town is waiting for
| What you may hear | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| The Town is getting conflicting advice from two agencies. ASCE is an advisory body to FEMA, and the two groups need to come to a uniform decision. The Town Manager’s account, as passed on to a resident, October 24, 2026. | The agencies that have weighed in agree with each other. FEMA Region III wrote on January 7 that local adoption of ASCE 24 “does not override NFIP minimums,” and Delaware’s flood office applied those minimums to this building on March 20 and June 1. ASCE is the American Society of Civil Engineers, a private professional society that publishes engineering standards. It is not a government agency, it has no role in deciding whether a Dewey building meets FEMA’s rules, and it has issued no opinion on this building. No process exists by which FEMA and ASCE jointly rule on a town permit. The State’s June 1 letter even quotes the current edition of the ASCE standard: dry floodproofing of “residential portions of mixed-use structures shall not be permitted.” The Town is bound by FEMA’s rules through its own Chapter 101: under § 101-5 the more restrictive rule governs, and under § 101-6D federal law prevails, so a private standard can add protection but never remove it. Here an older edition of that standard was used to relabel the residents’ garages and stair “not residential,” so they could be barricaded instead of elevated. The only opinion on that side is the Town’s consultant’s. Sources: About ASCE · FEMA Region III, January 7, 2026 · Delaware flood office, March 20, 2026 · Delaware flood office, June 1, 2026 · Code § 101-5 · Chapter 101 · consultant’s report, November 16, 2025 |
| The Town is waiting for that decision. The Town Manager’s account, as passed on to a resident, October 24, 2026. | Completely Untrue. The Town had its answer on June 1, in writing, and did not wait. Days earlier the Assistant Town Manager had written: “Before we consider the issuance of a Certificate of Occupation, we will wait for their review/response.” On June 2: “Today we received DNREC comments. Will review with Dave Naples.” On June 4 the consultant recommended occupancy without mentioning the State’s comments, and on June 11 the Town issued the certificate. The Town’s complete FOIA production contains no reply to the State. The decision the Town says it is waiting for is already in the procedure the Town Manager signed on September 15, 2026: “Where a conflict exists, the Town will apply the more restrictive applicable requirement”; residential portions of mixed-use structures must meet Chapter 101’s elevation requirements; and an approval that “may have been issued in error … will be reviewed promptly and documented.” Sources: Town emails, May 30 to June 2, 2026 (DNREC production pp. 8–10) · consultant’s letter, June 4, 2026 · certificate of occupancy, June 11, 2026 · Town statement, September 28, 2026 · Town floodplain procedure, p. 8, § 14.2, § 10 |
| David Naples has completed his FEMA training. The Town Manager’s account, as passed on to a resident, October 24, 2026. Earlier: “Dave Naples is currently in the course and expects to get certified by the end of April.” The Town Manager, Council meeting, March 20, 2026. | The Cape Gazette reported that he completed his floodplain-manager certification on March 25, 2026, after his October 23 and November 16, 2025 reports and after the Town lifted its Stop Work Order. Training does not reopen decisions already made, and the consultant who made them cannot be the one to review them. Written requests to the Town for a second opinion from FEMA Region III or an independent Certified Floodplain Manager, beginning in December 2025, have not been answered in writing. Sources: Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026 · Council meeting transcript, March 20, 2026 · requests for a second opinion, December 2025 to February 2026 |
The Town’s flood rating
FEMA’s Community Rating System scores what a town does beyond the minimum rules. More points mean a better class and a larger discount on every flood policy in town: Class 9 (500 to 999 points) gives 5 percent, Class 8 (1,000 to 1,499) gives 10 percent (FEMA).
| What you may hear | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Dewey lost its Class 8 because of one problem with the Sussex County hazard mitigation plan: it was “misinformation that was provided to FEMA. We should have always been a nine.” The Mayor, candidates forum, August 29, 2026. Also: “we were wrongfully in number eight.” Mayor at Council meeting, March 20, 2026. | The Town Manager’s own accounting values the county-plan credit at 136 points. Dewey lost 546 points, from 1,287 in 2013 to 741 today. Add the 136 back and Dewey has 877, still Class 9. FEMA’s 2013 profile shows Dewey had no points at all for floodplain-management planning, the activity that credits a mitigation plan. The biggest losses were in the Town’s own rules: higher regulatory standards fell from 287 points to 49, and stormwater management from 256 to 55. Nor was the old Class 8 unearned: in 2013 Dewey’s 1,287 points out-scored Lewes, then a Class 9 with 900. Lewes, on the same coast under the same rules, is now a Class 7 with 1,866. Sources: Town Manager’s email, December 16, 2025 · FEMA letter to the Mayor with the CRS verification report, December 13, 2021 · CSDE compilation of FEMA CRS data, 2013 and 2025 · forum transcript · Council transcript, March 20, 2026 · Delaware Public Media, July 28, 2026 |
| “Most if not all of the Town’s credits were lost” between 2015 and 2020, before the current staff arrived. The Town Manager, email of December 16, 2025. | Fair point: FEMA scored 2015 to 2020, and the Town Manager arrived in 2021. But the Town’s code consultant, now its floodplain consultant, has worked for the Town since July 2019, engaged “At your request” by Assistant Town Manager Jim Dedes. What counts now is the review still open, and not requesting delays. Sources: Town Manager’s email, December 16, 2025 · consultant’s proposal, July 19, 2019 (FOIA 2025-94, p. 14) |
| “With the recent town code changes and our current flood projects, these will help improve the town’s CRS score during its next review.” The Town Manager, October 2026 newsletter. Also: “I think the Town could easily improve from a 9 to an 8 in the very near future if not now.” The Town’s consultant, July 30, 2026. | The changes will help, and the Town deserves credit for them. But they earn no points until FEMA’s rating contractor re-scores the Town, and a better class also requires FEMA to close its compliance review. Both have been held up by the town for about 18 months: the contractor first asked to schedule the five-year review in March 2025, the federal shutdown cancelled the November 2025 date, the Town then asked to wait until “around February 2026,” and no record shows the review has been held; FEMA’s compliance review, opened the same month, has no closing letter. Until then no re-scoring has been done, and Dewey stays at 741 points (details and sources under FEMA’s two reviews, below). On the Town Manager’s own December 2025 numbers, the two credits he says can return (the county plan, 136 points, and cumulative substantial-improvement tracking, 137) bring Dewey to 1,014: 14 points over the Class 8 line, and only if both score as he expects under a FEMA manual that has since changed. The Town adopted five-year tracking at the 50 percent threshold, so not all 137 may return, and in December 2025 FEMA’s rating contractor was still asking the Town to “submit your adoption of the local HMP.” Points also come second: FEMA’s manual requires full compliance with the flood program first, and a community “in less-than-full compliance” drops to Class 10, with no discount at all. The Town need not wait for the next review: FEMA’s manual lets it ask for a courtesy review at any time. Sources: Town newsletter, October 2026 · Town Manager’s email, December 16, 2025 · consultant to the Town Manager, July 30, 2026 (FEMA production pp. 696–697) · FEMA’s rating contractor, December 8, 2025 · FEMA CRS page and Coordinator’s Manual (§§ 211.a(2), 214.b, 232.b) |
| “We’re not the only town that is in a nine … South Bethany and Fenwick are also at a nine.” The Town Manager, Council meeting, March 20, 2026. Also: “most communities are an eight or a nine.” A commissioner, same meeting. | By class that is true only. But by points, Dewey’s 741 is the fewest of any coastal town in Delaware. In FEMA’s October 2025 data South Bethany has 1,204, Delaware City 999 and Fenwick Island 921, all Class 9; Bethany Beach has 1,331 and Rehoboth Beach 1,073, both Class 8. The Delaware average is 1,281. Dewey is second from the bottom, ahead only of inland Seaford, which has 17 flood policies to Dewey’s 943. FEMA’s 2021 letter to the Mayor said the Town “does not have sufficient credit points to retain a CRS Class 8.” Sources: CSDE compilation of FEMA CRS data · Council transcript, March 20, 2026 · FEMA letter, December 13, 2021 |
| Only Bethany Beach has a certified floodplain manager; Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, Fenwick and South Bethany do not. The Town Manager, Council meeting, March 20, 2026, and as reported by the Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026. | In November 2025 the Lewes Building Official wrote to Dewey’s Building Official over the signature “Jon Ward, CFM Building Official City of Lewes,” offering: “I will be glad to help in any way I can.” The email is in the Town’s own FOIA production. Lewes has since moved up to Class 7 with 1,866 points. Sources: Town’s DNREC correspondence production, pp. 45–46 · Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026 · Delaware Public Media, July 28, 2026 |
FEMA’s two reviews
Two federal reviews are open: FEMA’s compliance review of how the Town enforces its flood rules (the Community Assistance Visit), and the five-year review of the Town’s flood rating, carried out by FEMA’s contractor, Verisk.
| What you may hear | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| “We have had no contact from them. We’re waiting for them to do an audit … which we have no control as to when they do an audit on us.” The Acting Building Official, Council meeting, March 20, 2026. Also: “the town’s got the FEMA angle covered.” An official, candidates forum, August 29, 2026. | FEMA reviewed Dewey on site on March 18, 2025, marked potential violations, and on May 1, 2025 asked for a corrective action plan “within 60 days.” The Town’s first substantive reply came that December. FEMA extended the deadline in February 2026 and asked to meet in May; when FEMA proposed two days for a closeout visit, the Mayor wrote that the Town was “only meeting for an hour to hour and half.” In September 2026 the Town sent back FEMA’s own draft procedure, signed, “to hopefully close-out the CAV,” 18 months after the visit; no FEMA closing letter has been produced. Separately, FEMA’s rating contractor offered December 2025 dates for the five-year review and wrote that the federal shutdown “will not negatively impact your cycle or rating.” The Town asked to wait until “around February 2026,” saying it was “quite overwhelmed with work,” and no record shows the review has been held. Neither review has been told about the Coastal Highway building: it is missing from the consultant’s 23-property deficiencies list for FEMA (May 20, 2026) and from FEMA’s August 2026 closeout summary. Fair points: FEMA called its findings “nothing serious,” though it still required the plan, and the shutdown did cancel the November 2025 visit. Sources: FEMA visit report, March 18, 2025 · FEMA transmittal to the Mayor, May 1, 2025 · FEMA extension, February 18, 2026 · FEMA meeting request, May 5, 2026 · the Mayor and FEMA, June 10–11, 2026 · FEMA closeout summary and drafts, August 21, 2026 · rating contractor, December 8, 2025 · Town asks to wait, December 9, 2025 · consultant’s deficiencies list, May 20, 2026 · Council transcript, March 20, 2026 · forum transcript |
| Raising the building in public could hurt the Town with FEMA. Heard in Dewey Beach, December 2025. | FEMA was reviewing the Town before any resident raised the building: its compliance visit was on March 18, 2025, and it asked for a corrective action plan on May 1, 2025, months before the first resident inquiry about the building (September 11, 2025). What puts a town on probation is failing to enforce its flood rules, not public discussion of them. FEMA’s own process is public: before probation FEMA must give the Town 90 days’ written notice, issue a press release to local media and write to every policyholder, and in that window the Town can avoid probation by correcting the violations. Fixing the building protects the Town; silence does not. Fair point: tone matters, and the record is the same either way. Sources: 44 CFR 59.24(b) · FEMA visit report, March 18, 2025 · FEMA transmittal to the Mayor, May 1, 2025 |
Staffing the flood office
| What you may hear | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| The Building Official left because of one resident’s complaints. Heard in Dewey Beach, 2026. | FEMA’s compliance review began in March 2025, six months before the first resident inquiry about the Coastal Highway building (September 11, 2025). And the town delayed it now for 18 months. Her departure is not the issue, and blame helps no one. The decision that matters came six months after she left: the building’s certificate of occupancy, signed June 11, 2026 by Assistant Town Manager Jim Dedes as Building Official. Sources: FEMA visit report, March 18, 2025 · certificate of occupancy |
| “WHEREAS, the Town is actively searching for a permanent replacement Building Official.” Resolution No. 3, March 20, 2026. “We’ve interviewed probably six people. None of them met the qualifications that we were looking for.” The Town Manager, same meeting. With no property tax, money is limited, making it hard to hire another full-time official. The Town Manager, as reported by the Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026. | The posting, on the Town’s site since December 17, 2025, offers a base salary of $68,000 and calls the floodplain-manager credential “preferred but not required.” Bethany Beach budgets about $147,600 per building-office position and has a Certified Floodplain Manager on staff. The salary is already appropriated: four months into the year the building department had spent $16,101 of its $175,289. On March 20 Council heard the Town was “730,000 to the better” of its budget, and a commissioner said that if salary is the barrier the Town Manager “needs to come to us and ask for the money.” The Building Official’s duties went instead to the consultant, under a contract with “no set hours of work” capped at $35,000 a year, about six hours a week. Sources: Resolution No. 3 and contract · Town job posting · Bethany Beach FY2027 budget · Town financials through July 2026 · Council transcript, March 20, 2026 · Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026 |
| There are only seven Certified Floodplain Managers in Delaware. The Town Manager, as heard by a resident, March 2026. Also heard: the few who are certified are already employed or not interested, and anyone interested would have applied. Heard in Dewey Beach, March 2026. | The Association of State Floodplain Managers, which grants the credential, counted 23 Certified Floodplain Managers in Delaware in May 2024, and 197 in neighboring Maryland. That count predates the Town’s own consultant, who earned the credential on March 25, 2026, and the Lewes Building Official signs as a CFM. Whether certified people are interested has not been tested: the Town’s posting offers $68,000 and calls the credential “preferred but not required,” while Bethany Beach budgets about $147,600 per building-office position (row above). Sources: ASFPM, Certified Floodplain Managers by state, May 2024 · ASFPM state map, May 2024 (PDF) · Cape Gazette, April 3, 2026 · Town’s DNREC correspondence production, pp. 45–46 · Town job posting |
What would settle it
None of this requires anyone to be blamed. The Town has said it wants to return to Class 8 and to hire a full-time Building Official, and the procedure the Town Manager signed on September 15, 2026 already provides the way to correct an approval issued in error. CSDE has asked the Town in writing to use it: the letter to the Town Solicitor, October 2026 sets out the first four steps below and asks for a written response by November 13, 2026. Residents should see that answer. The steps marked beyond the letter would complete the fix and put the Town ahead of FEMA instead of behind it:
- Open and document the review the September 15 procedure requires for an approval that may have been issued in error, with Chapter 101 as the standard, and state which sections of Chapter 101 were applied when the Stop Work Order was lifted (December 18, 2025), when the enclosed-garage variance was granted (November 5, 2025) and when the certificate of occupancy was issued (June 11, 2026), or that none was.
- Answer Delaware’s June 1, 2026 letter in writing, copy FEMA Region III, and make the answer public.
- Require what Chapter 101 requires before the certificate of occupancy can stand (§§ 101-16 and 101-27): certification, or elevation and wet floodproofing, of the residential portions; flood openings and flood-damage-resistant materials in the enclosures; an elevation certificate corrected to a base flood elevation of 6 feet; and a resolution of the materials the consultant’s October 23, 2025 report said to replace.
- Have the Board of Adjustment make the findings § 101-34 requires for the November 5, 2025 enclosed-garage variance, give the owner the required notice on flood-insurance cost and report the variance to FEMA, or determine that no Chapter 101 variance was granted and apply § 101-27B to the garages as built.
Beyond the letter: staff the flood office. Pay the vacant Building Official post a salary competitive with Bethany Beach, Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, require the floodplain-manager credential rather than prefer it, and pay for it from the $175,289 Council has already appropriated.
Beyond the letter: ask for a courtesy review of the rating now. Send the Town’s new ordinances and its adoption of the county mitigation plan to Verisk for the courtesy review FEMA’s manual allows at any time, and publish the answer, rather than waiting for the next cycle visit.
Beyond the letter: get an independent second opinion. The consultant who reversed his own findings cannot be the one to review them. Ask FEMA Region III or an independent Certified Floodplain Manager for a written opinion on the building, and publish it.
Beyond the letter: tell FEMA’s two reviews. Send the review and its result to FEMA Region III, whose compliance review of the Town is still open, and to Verisk, FEMA’s rating contractor, so the building is no longer missing from both.
About this document
Prepared by Coastal Stewards of Delaware, October 25, 2026. Each answer rests on the Town’s own records (meeting transcripts, FOIA productions, permits and correspondence), the State’s and FEMA’s letters, and FEMA’s published rules; every source is linked. Statements marked “as passed on to a resident” are the Town Manager’s account as relayed in October 2026, paraphrased rather than quoted. Meeting quotations come from auto-generated captions and should be checked against the recording before broadcast. Elected officials are identified by office, and the building is described rather than named while a federal complaint is pending. Corrections are welcome: Jeffrey C. Smith, Director, Coastal Stewards of Delaware · jcs@wpa.org · 443.603.2132.