Bellaire, TX

A Community Rating System (CRS) Success Story: Bellaire, TX’s Path to Resilience

Bellaire, TX, a suburban hub southwest of Houston, boasts a vibrant community with a range of restaurants, parks, and other amenities. However, like many coastal cities, Bellaire has been impacted by historic weather events. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey damaged almost 30% of homes. In 2021, the community faced another challenge: it was retrograded from a Class 7 to a Class 10 in the Community Rating System (CRS), significantly impacting flood insurance affordability for residents. This began Bellaire’s journey to recover from the retrograde and find tools to improve their floodplain management workflows.‍‍

A Post-Disaster Retrograde

After Hurricane Harvey, Bellaire demonstrated resilience despite facing a common municipal challenge: constrained resources, minimal floodplain training, and difficulties coordinating effectively across departments. The community excelled as a Class 7 in the Community Rating System (CRS) until an audit in 2021 flagged a need to improve its Elevation Certificate (EC) review process during and after construction. Bellaire was retrograded to a Class 10 later that year, which decreased residents’ National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) flood insurance premiums from 15% to 0%.

The impact of the retrograde on community members was significant, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in flood insurance discounts lost. The Bellaire floodplain management team took this retrograde seriously, as it severely impacted flood insurance affordability, and took immediate steps to address the issue.

Course Correcting for the Future

Christian Somers was pulled in to navigate this challenge. Christian wears many hats as the Assistant Director of Development Services, Building Official, and Floodplain & CRS Manager. Each of these titles represents a meaningful set of responsibilities – his wide-ranging experience afforded him a unique vantage point into the importance of the City’s CRS discount. He understood the community needed to course-correct quickly and implemented several new strategies to get back on track.

The department quickly expanded its team by hiring individuals dedicated to thorough plan-examining (with CRS maintenance in mind), permitting, inspections, and code compliance; only relying on third-party inspection services as a backup. Christian said, “It costs money to invest in
resources, but it costs way more to deal with these issues. It’s important to get it right up front.”

The team also started implementing policy changes. For example, they established stricter regulations for design flood elevations (DFE), changing the freeboard requirement to be 1 foot over the 500-year flood elevation. The department dove into the details by addressing ECs, identifying errors on the certificates, and improving Repetitive Loss (RL) letters and post-storm documentation.  

Tackling Elevation Certificates and Streamlining Workflows

As a part of its recovery, the Bellaire team looked into tools to improve its efficiency. In 2023, Bellaire partnered with Forerunner to digitize and streamline its large volume of work. Forerunner pulled in Bellaire’s new maps, Repetitive Loss data, and Elevation Certificates, giving the city a centralized platform for improving its floodplain management efforts. 

Bellaire’s audit revealed the City’s reliance on a manual, paper-based process for reviewing ECs. With Forerunner, the team can now store and track all ECs digitally in one central location. After the ECs are uploaded to Bellaire’s account, Forerunner geocodes the documents and attaches them to the correct property profile. Then, the EC Error Detection Feature automatically runs hundreds of validation checks, identifying potential clerical, compliance, and elevation issues that must be addressed. This has saved the department significant time and ensured greater confidence in EC accuracy.

“Forerunner is better than a second set of eyes,” Christian says. He appreciates that Forerunner goes beyond ensuring ECs are accurate. The platform centralizes the management of RL and severe RL properties and provides tools to communicate these risks with homeowners. Christian and his team understand that CRS recovery is not a singular process – it can be complex, and Forerunner was the perfect solution to empower Bellaire to elevate its floodplain management system.

Leveraging Technology to Improve in the CRS

Since Bellaire is a newer partner, Forerunner’s work with Christian and his team is just beginning. The City plans to continue working with Forerunner to maintain their participation and advance in the CRS program. They are particularly excited about Forerunner’s Substantial Improvement and Substantial Damage (SI/SD) features. Forerunner tracks all relevant SI/SD data, which will help Bellaire track properties with repairs or improvements that need to be brought within compliance regulations. Along with these capabilities, Forerunner’s mobile app will make it easier for Bellaire’s department to document damages when conducting surveys out in the field.

Lessons Learned & Goals for the Future

In retrospect, Christian noted that the City would have benefited from investing in floodplain management sooner to ease the high costs associated with post-disaster recovery. “There’s design, installation review, and verification inspection. All that costs a lot of money, but still, it is not as much as these disasters cost us."

We are grateful to partner with Bellaire on its floodplain management improvements and look forward to supporting Christian and his team as they continue to work toward their goals.