the first hint of snafu reared it's head: the question of whether or not Santa Cruz planning dept will allow us to rebuild because we're in a floodplain.

looking at Santa Cruz County's GIS app, we're obviously in the floodplain (which is probably why our mortgage lender required flood insurance (which we have)).

the cross-hatched portion is (apparently) the "FEMA DFIRM Floodways" layer, the blue portion is (apparently) the "FEMA DFIRM Insurance Zones". our house is just due north of the 'AE' label in the picture above (and maybe a little to the left).

why wouldn't they let us rebuild? we've mitigated that risk and heck, the house has been there longer than their dumb ordinance. still, i guess if they won't let us, there'll be some other choice to make. what that might be, i have NFI. hundreds and hundreds of people live along the San Lorenzo River, within these same boundaries.

i'm trying really hard not to let this bother me. worrying about this doesn't seem worth my time. i'm positive there will be other issues down the road that're far more worrisome.

not knowing if you're going to have a house in the long term sure makes it hard to concentrate in the short term, though. :-(