Hurricane season will be here soon and the City of Baytown is working hard to make sure you’re as safe as possible, while lowering flood insurance costs.
The City of Baytown is proud to announce that the Community Rating System program has rated the City of Baytown as a Class 5 community. The Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary program to provide citizens a reduced rate on standard flood insurance by adopting stronger development standards across the city.
Out of 164 communities that have a Class 5 rating, only six are in Texas and Baytown is the smallest community to receive the rating.
Erwin Burden, Assistant Director of Public Works, said, “By having a Class 5, citizens enjoy lower insurance rates by 25% and reduced repetitive losses during storm events.”
The rating also increases the chances of receiving drainage grants and disaster recovery funding.
Burden credits the tireless efforts of Baytown Associate Engineer Sweta Patel to make this rating happen. However, the City wants to do more. Burden said, “We are very close to a Class 4. We need about four prerequisites that we are working on.” The Class 4 rating would reduce rates even more.
Currently, there are only five Class 4 cities in the country. Baytown would be the highest rated city and the only Class 4 rated city in Texas.
Contact your insurance provider and ask what this rating means for your rates.