‘92 LONG BEACH ELECTIONS : New Law Cuts Flood Premiums in Half, Eases Regulations : Rules: Area builders feared that elevating new buildings, to avoid newly identified water dangers, would be prohibitively expensive.

President Bush has signed into law a measure to greatly reduce the impact of new flood insurance regulations, which would have sent premiums skyrocketing and could have put a damper on new development in the Southeast and Long Beach areas.

The legislation, signed last week, will allow residential and business property owners in flood zones to buy flood insurance at about half the expected cost, said Henry Chau, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the nation’s flood insurance program.

For example, $100,000 worth of flood insurance for an existing house or building in the flood zone will cost $222 a year instead of $412, he said.

The Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 will also relax regulations that would have required new buildings to be elevated to avoid damage in a huge flood. Local officials feared that the more stringent regulations would have made development prohibitively expensive.

The cities with flood-prone areas affected by the new law are Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Carson, Compton, Downey, Lakewood, Lynwood, Long Beach, Paramount, Pico Rivera and South Gate.

“It will allow construction to proceed on a normal schedule, and it will minimize the insurance premiums,” said Pico Rivera Councilman Garth G. Gardner, a spokesman for the cities.

The flood insurance regulations, which will probably take effect next year, became an issue when the Army Corps of Engineers released the results of a study in 1987.

The Corps of Engineers projected that a giant 100-year flood, which has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year, would overflow the banks of the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles River and inundate parts of the 11 cities.

Damages would total $2.25 billion in the 75-square-mile area, according to the Corps of Engineers.

To alleviate the problem, the corps proposed building concrete walls atop levees along the two rivers at a cost of $340 million. Bridges would be raised as well.

But the project, which is being designed, would not be completed until the year 2002 at the earliest. Funding has not been approved.

Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began revising its maps, on which insurance rates are based, to reflect the newly identified flood danger.

Projections of typical flood depths ranged from one foot in parts of Bell Gardens to seven feet in areas of Long Beach.

The most extensive flooding would occur in Paramount. FEMA estimates that 90% of the city would be inundated in a 100-year flood.

In addition to affecting insurance rates, the new flood maps also trigger costly building regulations to protect against flood damage.

Usually, new residential construction in such flood zones must be elevated above the waters of a 100-year flood. Commercial properties could be raised or flood doors or shields could be installed to keep out water.

The regulations would also cover existing homes and other buildings that are significantly improved.

But the new law exempts additions to existing buildings.

In addition, it requires most new construction to be elevated only to a maximum height of three feet, which could save developers tens of thousands of dollars.