A Champion family who built their dream home four years ago is being told they have to fill in their fully-finished basement with concrete.  Tanya Brown, a wife, and mother of four children went before Trumbull County Commissioners Wednesday morning with hopes of a resolution.

Tanya and her family purchased land on Fairlane Drive in Champion in 2017, land that happened to be in a floodplain.  She tells 21 News they took the proper steps and acquired the necessary permits to build the home in 2018, including elevating the house. 

In 2020, their original lender Chemical Bank, was bought out by TCF Bank.

"When TCF bought them I got a letter stating that we were having to pay forced flood insurance.", Tanya explained, arguing that all of it had been taken care of after elevating the home.  She contacted the Trumbull County Planning Commission, home to the Floodplain administration, which told her FEMA and ODNR didn't have those records on file. She submitted them again but was denied

An audit conducted by FEMA in 2020 flagged their home as a potential violation, and they weren't the only homeowners impacted by it.

Three months ago, 21 News reported FEMA flagged six homes in Trumbull County that were in violation of floodplain regulations after an error occurred under the county in the 90s.

T.J. Kieran with the floodplain administration tells me there are five properties left from 2020 that still need resolved.

Following the audit, Tanya tells 21 News they were notified they'd have to fill in their finished basement with concrete, FEMA citing their home was below the Base Flood Elevation, even after elevating the house to BFE required, and despite never having any flooding issues.

"This was the first thing we did ourselves you know, painted it, framed it, floored it, made a bar, a gym--this is where we hang out, all four of my kids every Sunday.", Tanya expressed.

Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa calls it a complex and complicated situation when it comes to enforcing these regulations.

"The county doesn't want to be in a position where we're penalizing property owners--but at the same FEMA and the floodplain administration and our NFIP status makes it so.", he said referring to the National Flood Insurance Program.

"What we can do and what the planning commission is doing is exhausting every effort to look into any funding source we can and that includes ARPA money.", Cantalamessa added.  

Commissioner Niki Frenchko tells 21 News she's been in dialogue with those impacted saying...they are here to help.

"Our effort is to use ARPA funding to do a study that could help those homeowners. ", Frencho explained.

In the first of many steps to mitigate the issue, the Trumbull County Commissioners gave the planning commission the green-light to seek cost estimates for hydrologic studies.  Tanya hopes these studies--once funded--would show its appropriate for FEMA map amendment--removing her from the floodplain map.

In the meantime, Tanya and her family will have to wait out the process, that will ultimately decide the future of their dream home.

"They can't really issue me a violation, because I'm not in violation--the base flood elevation that they gave us is what we built to.", Tanya concluded.