INDIANAPOLIS—In the final days of the legislative session, lawmakers run from room to room, publicly discussing bills that neither chamber can agree on. What are these meetings called? Conference committees.
On Monday’s docket, legislators sat down to iron out their differences on Senate Bill 242, which repeals current Indiana Code regarding what Indiana land could be subject to flooding. Under the law as it stands now, floodplain administrators must use the “best maps available” when deciding whether or not an area could flood. The bill sets to change this language, giving a lot more wiggle room for administrators and homeowners.
What’s the concern with this?
Some believe that the most recent updated maps, which were created by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, are not accurate. In committee meetings, homeowners and those in the real-estate field testified that in many cases, people who had owned their homes for years and had never had issues with flooding were suddenly being asked to sell their homes and move elsewhere, purely because of flooding concerns found with the DNR’s newest data.
Opponents to the bill said in committee it would not be good to change the law because it may put builders in a dangerous spot if they don’t heed the newest information.
What issues came up in the conference committee?
Three different amendments were discussed in the meeting, all attempting to tackle the concerns of senators and representatives on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, the author of the bill, said she wasn’t particularly attached to any language in the bill. She just wanted to address the concerns of homeowners in Indiana.
“We need to try to come to some sort of resolve on this,” Leising said.
The most discussed amendment, Amendment 5, included a section allowing for homeowners to dispute a denied application to build on a floodplain if they believe the maps used were either inaccurate or inaccurately used.
Leising said giving a property owner an option is important because of all the contact she has had with unhappy Hoosiers who have been wronged, one way or another, by floodplain mapping.
Another amendment would ensure that the DNR responds to property owner complaints within a certain amount of time, though conferees debated whether that time frame should be 30 or 120 days.
Rep. David Abbott, R-Rome City, said he wanted to “put the property owner back in the driver’s seat” of building new structures and houses.
Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, shared that he thought the bill was covering an important issue but he still has concerns.
“My biggest concern with Senate Bill 242 is taking out the language of the best available data,” Qaddoura said. He said that he wants to make sure people are using the most updated information, even if that isn’t the DNR’s maps or the national Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maps.
What happens now?
During the meeting, lawmakers did not finalize a version of the bill. The conferees will have to meet again before the final day of the legislative session, which must end by April 29.