CBRS Coastal Barrier Screener — CBRA Federal Flood Insurance Bar

Batch-screen coordinates against the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS) and get back the one fact that decides coastal deals: whether the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) withdraws federal flood insurance and federal financial assistance at that location.

Property inside a CBRS unit is generally ineligible for new National Flood Insurance Program coverage. If a lender requires flood insurance, that can end a closing. This actor tells you, per coordinate:

• In or out of a CBRS unit, with the unit id, name and acreage.
• System Unit vs Otherwise Protected Area — legally different, with different consequences, reported separately rather than collapsed into one flag.
• The flood insurance prohibition date from the USFWS CBRS Prohibitions layer. This is the date FEMA actually applies: a structure built (or permitted and under construction) before it can still be federally insured. An in/out answer without this date is not actionable.
• The official 20 ft CBRS Buffer Zone. A point within about 20 feet (6 m) of a mapped boundary is flagged boundary-adjacent. The in/out answer still comes from the CBRS Units layer and still stands; what the flag adds is that USFWS does not issue self-serve documentation this close to a line, so a file that needs documentation should request an official CBRS Property Determination letter.
• Distance to the nearest CBRS boundary, in metres and feet, with the nearest unit.
• The map vintage and a direct link to the official USFWS unit map, so any answer can be checked against the legal map.

Keyless. No account or API key at the source. One billable row per coordinate.

This is a screening tool, not an official determination. It reads the same USGS-hosted CBRS Mapper data USFWS publishes, but only USFWS issues an authoritative CBRA property determination. Use the CBRS Validation Tool for self-serve documentation, or email CBRAdeterminations@fws.gov for a determination letter. Nothing here is legal, insurance or lending advice.

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Who this is for

Persona	What they use it for
Coastal real-estate due diligence	Screen a pipeline of listings or a portfolio before spending money on a deeper look. A CBRS hit changes the underwriting.
Mortgage and title underwriters	Catch the CBRA flood-insurance bar before a loan file reaches closing, when a required policy cannot legally be written.
Flood insurance agents and NFIP write-your-own carriers	Pre-qualify a risk and get the prohibition date, which is what decides whether an existing structure is still insurable. A policy issued inside the CBRS in error must be cancelled and no claim can be paid.
Coastal developers and site selectors	Flag sites where most new federal expenditures and financial assistance are unavailable, before design spend.
Phase I ESA and environmental consultants	Add a CBRS overlay to a coastal site file alongside wetlands, flood and habitat screens.
AI agents / MCP	A clean, chainable geospatial tool: coordinates in, structured regulatory verdict out.

Example input

{
  "assets": [
    { "lat": 29.67,     "lon": -85.35,     "label": "Cape San Blas, FL (System Unit P30)" },
    { "lat": 28.83752,  "lon": -80.82921,  "label": "Canaveral, FL (Otherwise Protected Area FL-07P)" },
    { "lat": 29.751884, "lon": -85.304598, "label": "P30 boundary (in unit and in the 20 ft buffer zone)" },
    { "lat": 29.751884, "lon": -85.304567, "label": "3 m outside P30 (outside every unit — boundary-adjacent)" },
    { "lat": 39.7392,   "lon": -104.9903,  "label": "Denver, CO (inland control)" }
  ],
  "includeBoundaryPrecision": true,
  "includeProhibitionDates": true,
  "includeProximity": true,
  "includeOfficialMapLinks": true,
  "searchRadiusMeters": 1609,
  "nearBoundaryMeters": 76,
  "maxAssets": 500
}

Every option defaults to on, so a bare {"assets":[...]} gets the full screen. Turning one off sets its fields to null — meaning not checked — never to false.

Use as an MCP tool

The actor is exposed to AI agents through mcp.apify.com. Field-level descriptions in the output schema are written for an agent to read: each status field says what null means, and flag_basis gives the agent an audit trail it can quote back. Chain it after a geocoder and before a flood or wetlands screen.

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Output fields

One row per input coordinate. Every row carries every column.

Identity

Field	Type	Meaning
asset_label	string	Your label, echoed back. Synthesised as asset_N if omitted.
asset_lat / asset_lon	number	The screened point (WGS84 decimal degrees).
checked_at	string	UTC ISO 8601 timestamp of the run.
source_url	string	The USGS CBRS Units layer queried.
cbrs_validation_tool_url	string	The official USFWS/USGS CBRS Validation Tool.

The CBRS answer

Field	Type	Meaning
in_cbrs	boolean or null	true inside a CBRS unit, false checked and outside every unit, null = the CBRS Units layer did not answer. Null is not a clear result.
unit_id	string or null	Unit identifier, e.g. P30, FL-07P.
unit_name	string or null	Unit name, e.g. Cape San Blas.
unit_type	string or null	Exactly System Unit or Otherwise Protected Area, as USFWS publishes it.
unit_type_code	string or null	SYSTEM_UNIT, OPA or UNKNOWN.
is_system_unit	boolean or null	Convenience boolean for SYSTEM_UNIT.
is_otherwise_protected_area	boolean or null	Convenience boolean for OPA.
unit_objectid	number or null	OBJECTID of the unit polygon in the USGS service.
fast_acres	number or null	Fastland (upland) acreage of the unit.
wet_acres	number or null	Associated aquatic and wetland acreage.
total_acres	number or null	fast_acres + wet_acres.
shore_miles	number or null	Shoreline miles of the unit.
overlapping_unit_count	number or null	How many unit polygons the point intersects. Normally 0 or 1.
additional_unit_ids	string or null	Ids of any further intersecting units. Null in the normal single-unit case; nothing fetched is dropped.

CBRA consequences

Field	Type	Meaning
federal_flood_insurance_barred	boolean or null	The CBRA prohibition on new NFIP coverage applies at this location. True inside any CBRS unit. A location flag, not a structure-level determination: read it with the two date fields below. Null when the layer did not answer.
federal_expenditure_restricted	boolean or null	True inside a System Unit, where most new federal expenditures and financial assistance are prohibited. False in an OPA, where the flood-insurance prohibition is the only CBRA restriction.
federal_expenditure_restriction_scope	string or null	most_new_federal_expenditures, limited_purposes_only, or none.
flood_insurance_prohibition_date	string or null	The date FEMA applies. A structure constructed (or permitted and under construction) before it can still be federally insured.
flood_insurance_prohibition_year	number or null	Year part of the above, for filtering.
system_unit_designation_date	string or null	Date the area became a System Unit. Genuinely null for OPAs.
pre_prohibition_structures_may_be_insurable	boolean or null	True when a prohibition date was retrieved. Null when it was not; never assume.
substantial_improvement_rule_applies	boolean or null	True for areas added 1982-2023, where an existing insured structure that is substantially improved or damaged (over 50 percent of market value) cannot have its policy renewed. False for areas added 2024 or later.
flood_insurance_exception_available	boolean or null	True inside an OPA, where coverage may still be available with written documentation that the structure is used consistently with the purposes for which the area is protected.
flood_insurance_exception_note	string or null	The date-based and use-based exceptions in plain language.
cbra_determination_note	string or null	Full narrative: the CBRA effect, any boundary-adjacent or near-boundary advisory, any partial-result warning, and the disclaimer.
prohibition_unit_id	string or null	Unit id on the CBRS Prohibitions polygon.
prohibition_cbrs_type	string or null	Unit type recorded on the CBRS Prohibitions polygon.
unit_type_agreement	boolean or null	Whether the units layer and the prohibitions layer agree on the type.

Boundary precision

Field	Type	Meaning
in_cbrs_buffer_zone	boolean or null	The point is boundary-adjacent: inside the official USFWS CBRS Buffer Zone, about 20 feet (6 m) either side of a mapped boundary. It is a proximity band, not a CBRS unit — read it alongside in_cbrs, which it never overrides. The buffer polygons carry no unit attribution (their only fields are OBJECTID, BUFF_DIST and the geometry), so a buffer hit cannot name a unit; nearest_unit_id and distance_to_unit_boundary_ft do that.
buffer_zone_distance_ft	number or null	The buffer width published on the polygon (20), not a measured distance to the boundary — for that use distance_to_unit_boundary_ft. Null when the point is not in the buffer zone, and on the 7 of 1,145 buffer polygons where USFWS publishes no BUFF_DIST.
official_determination_required	boolean or null	True in the buffer zone: the point is boundary-adjacent, so USFWS will not issue self-serve documentation and an official CBRS Property Determination letter is the way to document the answer. It does not mean in_cbrs is in doubt.
determination_confidence	string or null	high, boundary_zone_official_determination_required (boundary-adjacent — verify with USFWS if you need documentation), boundary_zone_not_checked, or unknown.
distance_to_unit_boundary_m / distance_to_unit_boundary_ft	number or null	Distance from the point to the relevant unit boundary, in metres and in feet.
boundary_relation	string or null	inside_unit or outside_unit.
near_boundary	boolean or null	Within near_boundary_threshold_m of a boundary, at whatever threshold you set. Advisory; the officially published band is the ~20 ft in_cbrs_buffer_zone.
near_boundary_threshold_m	number or null	Threshold used on this run.
nearest_unit_id / nearest_unit_name / nearest_unit_type / nearest_unit_distance_m	mixed	The closest unit within the search radius.
units_within_search_radius	number or null	How many units lie within search_radius_m.
search_radius_m	number or null	The radius used on this run.

Vintage and provenance

Field	Type	Meaning
map_panel_no	string or null	Official CBRS map panel number, e.g. 12-013B.
map_panel_state	string or null	State on the panel.
map_panel_title	string or null	Panel title, e.g. Cape San Blas Unit P30/P30P (1 of 2).
map_date	string or null	Date printed on the panel.
map_effective_date	string or null	The boundary vintage this result rests on.
official_unit_map_url	string or null	Direct link to the official USFWS map for the unit.
historical_map_url	string or null	USFWS record of historical changes for the panel.
data_vintage_note	string or null	Vintage in prose.
source_unit_count	number or null	National CBRS unit count at run time, captured by the live drift check.
source_layers_queried	string or null	Which USGS layers were consulted for this row.
flag_basis	string or null	Audit trail: which layer produced each flag, and which were not consulted.

Status — read these before trusting a negative

Field	Type	Meaning
screen_status	string	complete, partial (an optional layer did not answer), or error.
cbrs_units_status	string	ok, unavailable, skipped.
cbrs_units_error	string or null	Why the authoritative layer did not answer.
prohibitions_status	string	ok, no_coverage, unavailable, not_requested.
buffer_zone_status	string	ok, unavailable, not_requested.
proximity_status	string	ok, unavailable, not_requested.
map_panel_status	string	ok, no_coverage, unavailable, not_requested.
layers_unavailable	string or null	Which layers did not answer on this row.
error	string or null	Populated when the point could not be screened.

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How a wrong answer is prevented

CBRS status is a fact people close on, so this actor is built to refuse rather than guess.

• null never means "no". null = not checked, false = checked and negative. If the CBRS Units layer does not answer, in_cbrs and both CBRA flags are null and the row says so. Earlier builds returned false there, which reads as "flood insurance is not barred" about a point that was never checked.
• A total outage fails the run. If the source cannot be reached, or every asset's units lookup fails, the run fails with an actionable message and emits nothing — so nothing is billed for an answer that does not exist.
• Live source checks run before any row is emitted. On every run the actor verifies the layer's own metadata and field list, the national unit count against an expected band, that Unit_Type still carries both System Unit and Otherwise Protected Area, that a coordinate known to sit inside a System Unit still resolves to one, that the response really is WGS84, and that no query was truncated. Any failure fails the run.
• Projection is checked by coordinate magnitude and each feature's own extent, not by distance from the query point. Coastal barriers are long: Cape Hatteras spans about 4.5 degrees. A distance-based guard would reject every open-coast site.
• Queries are explicitly record-capped and exceededTransferLimit is read, so a silently truncated response is reported as unavailable rather than used.
• Boundary queries carry both inSR and outSR. A missing inSR on the input geometry silently matches nothing, which looks exactly like a clear result.
• A buffer-zone hit is not a CBRS hit, and does not cast doubt on one. The USFWS buffer polygons are a ~20 ft proximity band with no unit attribution of their own, so in_cbrs_buffer_zone is reported next to in_cbrs, never over it. A boundary-adjacent point that is outside every unit is genuinely outside every unit; the flag exists because USFWS declines self-serve documentation that close to a line, not because the geometry is uncertain.

Data sources

All from the USGS-hosted CBRS Mapper service (gis1.wim.usgs.gov), which publishes the USFWS CBRS data:

Layer	Used for
3 — CBRS Units	The in/out answer, unit id/name/type, acreage, shoreline miles
1 — CBRS Prohibitions	Flood insurance prohibition date, System Unit designation date
0 — CBRS Buffer Zone	The official ~20 ft boundary-adjacency band. 1,145 polygons whose only published fields are OBJECTID, BUFF_DIST (20 on 1,138, null on 7) and the geometry — no unit attribution
5 — CBRS Map Panels	Map vintage, panel number, official USFWS map link

Boundaries are revised by Congress and administratively by USFWS through the statutory 5-year review, so always read map_effective_date alongside the verdict.

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $10 per 1,000 rows ($0.01 per coordinate), on the automatic result event. Graduated discounts apply on paid Apify plans. A run that fails a source check emits no rows and bills nothing.

FAQ

Does a CBRS hit mean the property cannot get flood insurance? Not automatically. The CBRA prohibition applies to new federal coverage, and a structure built (or permitted and under construction) before the unit's flood_insurance_prohibition_date can still be federally insured. That date is on every row. Inside an Otherwise Protected Area there is a further exception for structures used consistently with the purposes for which the area is protected.

What is the difference between a System Unit and an Otherwise Protected Area? Inside a System Unit, CBRA withdraws federal flood insurance and most new federal expenditures and financial assistance. Inside an OPA, the flood-insurance prohibition is the only CBRA restriction. The actor reports both separately (federal_flood_insurance_barred, federal_expenditure_restricted, federal_expenditure_restriction_scope).

My point came back clear but official_determination_required is true. Why? The point is boundary-adjacent — within about 20 feet of a mapped CBRS boundary. The clear result is still a real answer: the CBRS Units layer was queried, the point is outside every unit, and CBRA's prohibitions do not apply there. What the flag adds is that USFWS does not issue self-serve in/out documentation this close to a line, so if your file needs documentation, request an official CBRS Property Determination letter. Note also that the buffer polygons carry no unit attribution, so the flag cannot say which unit's boundary is nearby — nearest_unit_id and distance_to_unit_boundary_ft do that.

Is a clear coordinate the same as a clear parcel? No. CBRA eligibility turns on where the insurable structure sits. If only an undeveloped portion of a parcel is inside the CBRS and every insurable structure is completely outside it, federal flood insurance is not barred. Screen the structure, or several points across the parcel.

Can I use this as the official determination? No. Use the CBRS Validation Tool for self-serve documentation, or request a determination letter from USFWS at CBRAdeterminations@fws.gov. This actor is a screen that tells you when to do that.

Why did my run fail instead of returning zero rows? Because a green run with no rows is indistinguishable from a green run with a wrong answer. If the source is unreachable or drifts from its verified shape, the run fails loudly and bills nothing.

Related actors

Actor	Why pair it
NFIP Flood Loss Risk Screener	Historical FEMA paid-claim history near the same coordinate.
FEMA NRI County Risk Profile	County and tract-level multi-peril risk context.
NHD Surface Water & Section 404 Screener	Jurisdictional surface water at the same site.
FWS Wetlands Proximity Screener	National Wetlands Inventory overlap and Section 404 exposure.
Site Due Diligence Bundle	Twenty regulatory layers for one coordinate in a single call, including this one.

Legal notice

This actor reproduces publicly available USFWS/USGS CBRS data and applies published USFWS and FEMA rules to it. It is informational only and is not an official CBRA determination, a flood-insurance eligibility decision, a survey, or legal advice. FEMA's implementing regulations are at 44 CFR Part 71. A federal flood insurance policy issued inside the CBRS in error must be cancelled and no claim can be paid, so confirm with USFWS before acting.