PLAINFIELD — Some residents aren’t happy about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency classifies their homes when it comes to flooding.

This surfaced when the Planning Commission in Plainfield held a public meeting Monday night, the first to lay out zoning changes it plans to make. Changes include expanding the rural residential area and adding cemeteries as a conditional use in the forest and agricultural zone. But the biggest change would create a district called the river hazard overlay district. This district would contain the flood plain, as defined by FEMA, and adds in a landslide hazard zone as landslides have been an issue in town. Zoning laws would keep people from building inside the district so that new structures wouldn’t contribute to the landslides.

In July, the town experienced severe flooding that caused erosion near Cameron Road, and officials say the garage of a home on that road is only about two feet from a 100-foot drop. The house is about 23 feet from the drop.

Select Board Chairman Bram Towbin said previously the town is talking with FEMA about funding that would allow it to buy the property and destroy the home to keep it from falling into Great Brook.

During the discussion Monday, residents brought up the fact that the FEMA map used by the Planning Commission for zoning is outdated and inaccurate as it doesn’t show where some landslides have cut away the land, leaving areas more exposed to further slides, and the map also has some homes classified as being in Zone A that they believe should not be.

According to FEMA, Zone A is land subject to damage from a 100-year flood, or a flood that has a 1 percent change of happening annually. Owners of homes in Zone A are required to purchase flood insurance. On its website, FEMA admits the zone does not take into account elevations as detailed hydraulic analyses haven’t been performed.

Resident Rick Pope owns a home in Zone A on Brook Road. Pope said flood insurance was essentially a tax he has to pay because he lives near the brook. He has been through three bad storms in the past few years and his property has not suffered flooding from the brook, he said.

“What bothers me is we are using (the FEMA map) as a zoning tool and it’s not accurate,” he said.

There is the ability to have the FEMA map amended, however. Dan Currier, with the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission, said at the meeting that individual homeowners or municipalities can apply for a map amendment to get a zone altered, but the applicant needs up-to-date hydraulic data.

Currier said that involves hiring a surveyor — costing from $1,000 to $2,000 — who will determine a property’s base flood elevation.

The process should be easier later this year, as he said the state has recently completed a survey of waterways in every county that would meet FEMA’s standards. That data is expected to be released this fall.

Towbin said he would be looking into having the town apply for a global map amendment.

“I think it’s completely absurd that individual homeowners would have to do this,” he said.

Even with the frustration of the FEMA map, Gretchen Alexander, a river scientist with the Agency of Natural Resources, said at the meeting that the map still needs to be used by the town so that residents have the ability to purchase flood insurance.

There will be more public meetings down the road to discuss the zoning changes. Will Colgan, the chair of the Planning Commission, said there could be a townwide vote to adopt the changes during the election in November.

eric.blaisdell @timesargus.com