PLANT CITY - Hillsborough County says most of the Walden Lake community sits in a 100-year flood plain. The city, through modeling studies performed by its engineering department, says that conclusion is not accurate.

Hillsborough performed its studies of the eastern portions of the county and submitted the results last year to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The county study revealed that about 1,400 parcels - most of them within Walden Lake, which contains 2,000 homes - would be included in the revised FEMA flood maps. The purpose of the flood insurance rate maps is to record the areas that have a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year.

Residents living in a designated flood zone must purchase flood insurance.

City Manager David Sollenberger told commissioners at a recent meeting that the city’s engineering department has completed an analysis that showed that the 1,400 parcels in Walden Lake and about 25 properties in the Summer Creek subdivision should be excluded from the flood plain designation and has submitted the results to FEMA for review.

Engineers are optimistic that FEMA will approve the city’s revised results, Sollenberger said.

Ray Reyes

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