Online Floodplain Maps Coming Soon
Proposed changes to the city’s floodplain management ordinance would create a more rigorous process for approving construction in the floodplain and would remove previously allowed exemptions to what can be built there.
A floodplain is land near streams that could be inundated by a so-called 100 year flood — a flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. The city’s original 1978 floodplain management ordinance, which bans new development in the floodplain, was last updated in 1992. Changes in federal and state regulations require that it be revised.
The proposed revisions include a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requirement that owners of property in the 100-year floodplain acquire a permit allowing the city to set conditions on new construction, review and approve construction plans, inspect construction and obtain FEMA-required documentation. The ordinance will continue the existing requirement that owners obtain a variance allowing building in the floodplain, including an engineering study of the effect on the floodplain’s boundaries and elevation. The city is no longer able to exempt new road crossings, stream restoration or utility work and minor construction, such as landscaping, open fences or play equipment, from the floodplain permitting requirement. However, the city will establish a simplified permit for such development.
The revised ordinance is scheduled to be introduced at the Oct. 10 Mayor and Council meeting. A public hearing will follow later this fall. Find more information when the Oct. 10 agenda is posted at www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter.
Rockville participates in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which provides affordable insurance to property owners with buildings or other structures in the floodplain. To qualify for the insurance, homes must be in a community that, like Rockville, participates in the program, which requires the community to have a floodplain zoning ordinance. Learn more at www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program.
The city is developing an online map to show FEMA-identified flood hazard areas and to help homeowners assess their flood hazard risks. A new floodplain management webpage will list precautions that homeowners can take to limit flood damage and will explain the city’s new permitting process, once adopted. City engineers are available to help homeowners navigate the process for appeals of FEMA flood insurance rate maps.
For more information, contact Lise Soukup at [email protected] or 240-314-8874.