BOISECOUNTY
FLOOD PLAN ORDINANCE
ORDINANCE 2010-04
Adopted May 10, 2010
Section 1.0 - Statutory Authorization, Findings of Fact, Purpose, and Objectives
1.1 Statutory Authorization
The Legislature of the State of Idaho has in Idaho Code 46-1022 delegated the responsibility to local governmental units to adopt regulations designed to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare of its citizenry. Therefore, Boise County, Idaho does ordain as follows:
1.2Findings of Fact
1)Boise County Waters provide valuable recognized natural resource functions and that prudent preservation, protection and management is necessary to assure the public health, safety and welfare.
2)The flood hazard areas of BoiseCounty are subject to periodic inundation which results in loss of life and property, health, and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare.
3)These flood losses are caused by the cumulative effect of obstructions in areas of special flood hazards which increase flood heights and velocities, and when inadequately anchored, damage uses in other areas. Uses that are inadequately floodproofed, elevated, or otherwise protected from flood damage also contribute to the flood loss.
4)Inadequate culverts or bridges combined with obstructions during times of high run-off, in all areas of BoiseCounty, have caused flooding and contributed to losses on individual properties, neighboring properties and County, State and Federal land.
5)Implementing this Flood Ordinance allows BoiseCounty and its residents to be eligible for FEMA support and funding.
1.3Statement of Purpose
It is the purpose of this ordinance to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare; provide ordinance regulation, which assists property owners reduce in the reduction of the annual cost of flood insurance; and minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions in specific areas by provisions designed to:
1)Protect human life and health;
2)Minimize expenditure of public money and costly flood control projects;
3)Minimize the need for rescue and relief efforts associated with flooding and generally undertaken at the expense of the general public;
4)Minimize prolonged business interruptions;
5)Minimize damage to public facilities and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets, and bridges located in areas of special flood hazard;
6)Help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of areas of special flood hazard so as to minimize future flood blight areas;
7)Ensure that potential buyers are notified that property is in an area of special flood hazard;
8)Ensure that those who occupy the areas of special flood hazard assume responsibility for their actions;
9)Ensure that any new land use change will not have any net adverse impacts on flood plain functions, including consideration of cumulative impact and ensure that appropriate analysis techniques are employed to determine the cumulative effects;
10)Ensure that new developments will prepare flood management plans, enforceable by local governments, which include operation and maintenance of any development-related flood management facilities;
11)Ensure that no fill program shall adversely affect the riparian and aquatic habitats of the waters of BoiseCounty; and
12)Protect continuous riparian corridors and flood plain wetlands that provide flood storage and mitigate peak flows.
1.4Methods of Reducing Flood Losses
In order to accomplish its purposes, this ordinance includes methods and provisions for:
1)Restricting or prohibiting uses which are dangerous to health, safety, and property due to water or erosion hazards, or which result in damaging increases in erosion or in flood heights or velocities;
2)Requiring that uses vulnerable to floods, including facilities which serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction;
3)Controlling the alteration of natural flood plains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers, which help accommodate or channel flood waters;
4)Controlling filling, grading, dredging, and other development which may increase flood damage; and
5)Preventing or regulating the construction of flood barriers that unnaturally divert floodwaters or may increase flood hazards in other areas.
6)Requiring that private road access through BoiseCounty right-of-way approaches have adequate culvert diameter or bridge clearance.
Section 2.0 – General Provisions
2.1Lands to Which This Ordinance Applies
This ordinance shall apply to all areas of special flood hazards within the unincorporated area of BoiseCounty.
2.2Basis For Establishing The Areas of Special Flood Hazard
The areas of special flood hazard identified by the Federal Insurance Administration in a scientific and engineering report entitled “The Flood Insurance Study for Boise County “ dated April 5, 1988, and any revisions thereto, with an accompanying Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), and any revisions thereto, are hereby adopted by reference and declared to be a part of this ordinance. The Flood Insurance Study and the FIRM are on file at the Boise County Courthouse, Planning and Zoning Office. The best available information for flood hazard area identification as outlined in Section 4.3-2 shall be the basis for regulation until a new FIRM is issued that incorporates data utilized under Section 4.3-2.
2.3Penalties For Noncompliance
No structure or land shall hereafter be constructed, located, extended, converted, or altered without full compliance with the terms of this ordinance and other applicable regulations. Violations of the provisions of this ordinance by failure to comply with any of its requirements (including violations of conditions and safeguards established in connection with conditions), shall constitute a misdemeanor as defined in Idaho Code §18-111. Nothing herein contained shall prevent the BoiseCounty from taking such other lawful action as is necessary to prevent or remedy any violation.
2.4Abrogation and Greater Restrictions
This ordinance is not intended to repeal, abrogate, or impair any existing easements, covenants, or deed restrictions. However, where this ordinance and another ordinance, easement, covenant, or deed restriction conflict or overlap, whichever imposes the more stringent restrictions shall prevail.
2.5interpretation
In the interpretation and application of this ordinance, all provisions shall be:
1) Considered as minimum requirements;
2) Liberally construed in favor of the governing body; and,
3) Deemed neither to limit nor repeal any other powers granted under State
statutes.
The provisions of this Ordinance shall be in addition to, and shall not be deemed to repeal, abrogate, or impair any other ordinance, regulation, easement, covenant or deed restriction. In the event that the provisions of this Ordinance and any other ordinance, regulation, easement, covenant or deed restriction conflict or overlap, whichever has the more restrictive requirements shall control.
2.6SEVERABILITY
This ordinance is hereby declared to be severable. Should any portion of this ordinance be declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect and shall be read to carry out the purpose(s) of the ordinance before the declaration of partial invalidity.
2.7REPEAL OF CONFLICTING PROVISION
All provisions of the current ordinance of the County of Boise which conflict with the provisions of this ordinance are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict. Nothing in this Ordinance shall be inconsistent with Idaho Code 39-4116 or its successor provisions.
2.8Warning And Disclaimer of Liability
The degree of flood protection required by this ordinance is considered reasonable for regulatory purposes and is based on scientific and engineering considerations. Larger floods can and will occur on rare occasions. Flood heights may be increased by man-made or natural causes. This ordinance does not imply that land outside the areas of special flood hazards or uses permitted within such areas will be free from flooding or flood damages. This ordinance shall not create liability on the part of BoiseCounty, any officer or employee thereof, or the Federal Insurance Administration, for any flood damages that result from reliance on this ordinance or any administrative decision lawfully made hereunder.
2.9EFFECTIVE DATE
This Ordinance shall be effective upon its passage and publication as provided by law.
Section 3.0 – Definitions
Unless specifically defined below, terms or phrases used in this ordinance shall be interpreted so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this ordinance it’s most reasonable application.
ACCESSORY STRUCTURES: A subordinate structure incidental to the main use or principal building of a property and which is located on the same lot or tract as the main structure but does not include any building containing a dwelling unit as hereinafter defined.
ADMINISTRATOR: Refers to the Planning and Zoning Administrator, or his/her designated representative, responsible for the administration and enforcement of this Ordinance.
Appeal: a request for a review of the interpretation of any provision of this ordinance or a request for a variance.
Area of Shallow Flooding: designated as AO, or AH Zone on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). AO zones have base flood depths that range from one to three feet above the natural ground; a clearly defined channel does not exist; the path of flooding is unpredictable and indeterminate; and, velocity flow may be evident. AO is characterized as sheet flow; AH indicates ponding, and is shown with standard Flood Protection Elevations.
Area of Special Flood Hazard: is the land in the flood plain within a community subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year. Designation on FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) maps always includes the letters A or V.
Base Flood: the flood having a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also referred to as the “100-year flood”). Designated on Flood Insurance Rate Maps by the letters A or V. Where Flood Protection Elevation (BFE) is not available either through the Flood Insurance Study, FIRM, or from another authoritative source (Section 4.3-2), the Administrator shall determine a reasonable base flood elevation. The test of reasonableness is a local judgment and includes use of historical data, high water marks, photographs of past flooding, etc., where available.
Basement: means any area of the building having its floor sub-grade (below ground level) on all sides, except has described and permitted in FEMA Technical Bulletin 11-01.
BOARD: meansBoise County Board of CountyCommissioners.
COMMISSION: means thePlanning and Zoning Commission.
CREEK:A small stream, often a shallow or intermittent tributary to a river, including but not limited to: Mores Creek, Grimes Creek, HarrisCreek, Rabbit Creek, and Alder Creek.
Critical Facility: means a facility which even a slight chance of flooding might be too great. Critical facilities include (but are not limited to) schools, nursing homes, hospitals, police, fire and emergency response installations, and installations which produce, use, or store hazardous materials or hazardous waste, or community and/or public water and waste water supply and treatment facilities.
Development: means any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials located within the area of special flood hazard.
Elevation Certificate: means the official form (FEMA Form 81-31) used to track development provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with community floodplain management ordinances, and determine the proper insurance premium rate with Section B completed by Community Officials.
ElevatedBuilding: means for insurance purposes, a non-basement building that has its lowest elevated floor raised above ground level by foundation walls, shear walls, post, piers, pilings, or columns.
Existing Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision: means 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 the adopted floodplain management regulations.
Expansion to an Existing Manufactured HomePark or Subdivision: means 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).
Flood or Flooding:means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from:
1) The overflow of inland or tidal waters and/or
2) The unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff of surface waters from any source.
Flood Insurance RateMap (FIRM): means the official map on which the Federal Insurance Administration has delineated both the areas of special flood hazards and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.
Flood Insurance Study (FIS): means the official report provided by the Federal Insurance Administration that includes flood profiles, the Flood Boundary-Floodway Map, and the water surface elevation of the base flood.
Flood protection elevation means an elevation that shall correspond to the elevation of the one percent (1%) chance flood (one hundred (100) year flood) plus any increased flood elevation due to floodway encroachment, plus any required freeboard.
Floodproofed: (1) Floodproofing means making a building watertight, substantially impermeable to floodwaters. (2) Floodproofing is described as a combination of adjustments and/or additions of features to buildings that eliminate or reduce the potential for flood damage (see FEMA Tech Bulletin 3-93).
Floodway: means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot.
INTERMITTENT STREAMS:means a water channel contains flowing water for only a portion of the year. When not flowing, the water may remain in isolated pools, or surface water may be absent. Intermittent Streams are usually marked on topographic maps with a line of blue dashes and dots.
Lowest Floor: means the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area (including basement). An unfinished or flood resistant enclosure, usable solely for parking of vehicles, building access, or storage in an area other than a basement area, is not considered a building’s lowest floor, provided that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable non-elevation design requirements of this ordinance found at Section 5.2-1(2), (i.e. Provided there are adequate flood ventilation openings).
Manufactured Home: means 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.”
Manufactured HomePark or Subdivision: means a parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two or more manufactured home lots for rent or sale.
MITIGATION: means measures to avoid impacts, minimize impacts, restore impacted areas, and compensate for impacts to a natural resource attributable to a proposed action.
MITIGATION, APPROPRIATE: means mitigation which avoids impacts to, minimizes impacts to, restores, or replaces the functions and values of a natural resource, and is consistent with the scope and degree of those impacts attributable to a proposed action.
MITIGATION, PRACTICAL: means mitigation which is available and capable of being done after taking into consideration cost, existing technology, and logistics in light of overall project purposes.
New Construction: means structures for which the “start of construction” commenced on or after the effective date of this ordinance. This includes substantial improvement and means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns, or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation.
New Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision: means 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 adopted floodplain management regulations.
NO ADVERSE IMPACT: means an approach that ensures the action of any property owner, public or private, does not adversely impact the property and rights of others.
NO-NET-LOSS: means the measure of the success of mitigation that requires avoidance, minimization, restoration, and compensation of all functions and values of a natural resource impacted by a proposed action.
Recreational Vehicle: means a vehicle:
1)built on a single chassis;
2)400 square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projection;
3)Designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable 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.
Regulatory flood is a flood determined to be representative of large floods known to have occurred in Idaho and which may be expected to occur on a particular stream because of like physical characteristics. The regulatory flood is based upon a statistical analysis of stream flow records available for the watershed or an analysis of rainfall and runoff characteristics in the watershed. In inland areas, the flood frequency of the regulatory flood is once in every one hundred (100) years; this means that in any given year there is a one percent (1%) chance that a regulatory flood may occur or be exceeded.
REPETITIVE LOSS:means flood-related damages sustained by a structure on two separate occasions during a 10-year period for which the cost of repairs at the time of each such flood event, on the average, equals or exceeds 25 percent of the market value of the structure before damage occurred.