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154.38 FH FLOOD HAZARD DISTRICT
154.38 FH FLOOD HAZARD DISTRICT (Ord. 26-1982; Ord. 91-1993)
 
154.38.00           INTENT
 
                           The purpose of this District is to guide development in the flood hazard areas in order to reduce the potential for loss of life and property, reduce the potential for health and safety hazards, and to reduce the potential for extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief. Under the authority granted to local units of government to control the effects of flooding, the Common Council of the City of Richmond, Indiana, hereby adopts the following floodplain management regulations in order to accomplish the following:     
 
154.38.00.01      Prevent unwise developments from increasing flood or drainage hazards to others;
 
154.38.00.02      Protect new buildings and major improvements to buildings from flood damage;
 
154.38.00.03      Protect human life and health from the hazards of flooding;
 
154.38.00.04      Lessen the burden on the taxpayer for flood control projects, repairs to flood-damaged public facilities and utilities, and flood rescue and relief operations;
 
154.38.00.05      Maintain property values and a stable tax base by minimizing the potential for creating flood blighted areas; and
 
154.38.00.06      Make federally subsidized flood insurance available for structures and their contents in the City by fulfilling the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program.
 
154.38.01           DEFINITIONS
 
                           For the purpose of this article, the following definitions are adopted:
 
154.38.01.01      “BUILDING” - See “structure”.
                          
154.38.01.02      “DEVELOPMENT” - Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate including but not limited to:
 
(a)        Construction, reconstruction, or placement of a building or any addition to a building; (Ord. 46-2002)
 
(b)        Installing a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for a manufactured home or installing a recreational vehicle on a site for more than 180 days;
 
(c)        Installing utilities, erection of walls and fences, construction of roads, or similar projects;
 
(d)        Construction of flood control structures such as levees, dikes, dams, channel improvements, etc.;
 
(e)        Mining, dredging, filling, grading, excavation, or drilling operations.
 
(f)         Construction and/or reconstruction of bridges or culverts;
 
(g)        Storage of materials; or
 
(h)        Any other activity that might change the direction, height, or velocity or flood or surface waters.
 
154.38.01.24      "SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT" - Any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the “start of construction” of the improvement. This term includes structures that have incurred “substantial damage” regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not include improvements of structures to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code requirements or any alteration of a “historic structure”, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structures continued designation as a “historic structure”.
 
154.38.01.03      “DEVELOPMENT” does not include activities such as the maintenance of existing buildings and facilities such as painting, re-roofing; resurfacing roads; or gardening, plowing, and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling, grading, excavation, or the construction of permanent buildings.
                          
154.38.01.04      “EXISTING MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION” - A manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed before the effective date of this article.
                          
154.38.01.05      “EXPANSION TO AN EXISTING MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION” - The preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads).
 
154.38.01.06      “FBFM” - Flood Boundary and Floodway Map.
 
154.38.01.07      “FEMA” - Federal Emergency Management Agency.
 
154.38.01.08      “FHBM” - Flood Hazard Boundary Map.
 
154.38.01.09      “FIRM” - Flood Insurance Rate Map.
 
154.38.01.10      “FLOOD” - A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow, the unusual and rapid accumulation, or the runoff of surface waters from any source.
                          
154.38.01.11      “FLOODPLAIN” - The channel proper and the areas adjoining any wetland, lake or watercourse which have been or hereafter may be covered by the regulatory flood. The floodplain includes both the floodway and the floodway fringe districts.
 
154.38.01.12      “FLOOD PROTECTION GRADE OR THE ‘FPG’” - The elevation of the regulatory flood plus two feet at any given location in the SFHA.
 
154.38.01.13      “FLOODWAY” - The channel of a river or stream and those portions of the floodplains adjoining the channel which are reasonably required to efficiently carry and discharge the peak flood flow of the regulatory flood of any river or stream.
 
154.38.01.14      “FLOODWAY FRINGE” - Those portions of the floodplain lying outside the floodway.
 
154.38.01.15      “LETTER OF MAP AMENDMENT (LOMA)” - An amendment to the currently effective FEMA map that establishes that a property is not located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). A LOMA is only issued by FEMA.
 
154.38.01.16      “LETTER OF MAP REVISION (LOMR)” - An official revision to the currently effective FEMA map. It is issued by FEMA and changes flood zones, delineations, and elevations.
                          
154.38.01.17      “LOWEST FLOOR” - The lowest of the following:
                                   
(a)        The top of the basement floor;
                    
(b)        The top of the garage floor, if the garage is the lowest level of the building;
 
(c)        The top of the first floor or of buildings elevated on pilings or constructed on a crawl space with permanent openings; or
 
(d)        The top of the floor level of any enclosure below an elevated building where the walls of the enclosure provide any resistance to the flow of flood waters unless:
 
(1)        The walls are assigned to automatically equalize the hydrostatic flood forces on the walls by allowing for the entry and exit of flood waters, by providing a minimum of two openings (in addition to doorways and windows) having a total area of one (1) square foot for every two (2) square feet of enclosed area subject to flooding. The bottom of all such openings shall be no higher than one (1) foot above grade.
 
(2)        Such enclosed space shall be usable for the parking of vehicles and building access.
                          
154.38.01.18      “MANUFACTURED HOME” - A structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when attached to the required utilities. The term “manufactured home” does not include a “recreational vehicle”.
 
154.38.01.19      “NEW MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION” - A manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the
 
lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after the effective date of this article.
 
154.38.01.20      “RECREATIONAL VEHICLE” - A vehicle which is (1) built on a single chassis; (2) 400 square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projections; (3) designed to be self-propelled or permanently tow able by a light duty truck; and (4) designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling, but as temporary living quarters for recreational camping, travel, or seasonal use.
 
154.38.01.21      “REGULATORY FLOOD” - The flood having a one percent probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year, as calculated by a method and procedure which is acceptable to and approved by the Indiana Natural Resources Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The regulatory flood elevation at any location is as defined in 154.38.03 of this ordinance. The “Regulatory Flood” is also known by the term “Base Flood”.
 
154.38.01.22      “SFHA or SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREA” - Those lands within the jurisdiction of the City that are subject to inundation by the regulatory flood. The SFHAs of the City are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map of the City prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated August 16, 1982. The SFHAs of those parts of unincorporated WayneCounty that are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City or that may be annexed into the City are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map prepared for WayneCounty by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated September 2, 1982.
 
154.38.01.23      “STRUCTURE” - A structure that is principally above ground and is enclosed by walls and a roof. The term includes a gas or liquid storage tank, a manufactured home, or a prefabricated building. The term also includes recreational vehicles to be installed in a site for more than 180 days.
 
154.38.01.24      “SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT” - Any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the “start of construction” of the improvement. This term includes structures that have incurred “substantial damage” regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not include improvements of structures to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code requirements or any alteration of a “historic structure”, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structures continued designation as a “historic structure”. (Ord. 46-2002)


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