Article 18, Chapters 1-3 - Floodplain Regulations 

3-18-1 Chapter 1: General Provisions

3-18-1-1 Statement of Purpose and Intent

The purpose of this article is to control development in the floodplain 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 land use within their jurisdictions, which includes the effects of flooding, the community hereby adopts the following floodplain management regulations in order to meet the following intent:

1. Protect human life and health.
2. Minimize public and private property damage.
3. Protect individuals from buying lands and structures which are unsuited for intended purposes because of flood hazards.
4. Minimize surface and ground water pollution and erosion of the floodplain soils which will adversely affect human, animal or plant life.
5. Control development which will, when acting alone, or cumulatively with similar development:
1. create an unjustified demand for public investment in flood control works by requiring that uses vulnerable to floods, including public facilities which serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction or substantial improvement
2. cause additional flood losses if public streets, sewers, water, and other utilities must be extended below the flood level to serve the development;
3. create an additional burden to the public to pay the costs of rescue, relief, emergency preparedness measures, or storm sewer systems;
4. create an additional burden to the public for business interruptions, disruption of transportation routes, interference with utility services, or other factors that result in the loss of wages, sales production, and tax revenue; and
5. create a significant impact on the natural environment.
6. Provide for public awareness of flooding potential.
7. Control uses allowed within the flood hazard areas, such as fill, dumping, storage of materials, structures, buildings, and other works which, acting alone or in combination with other existing or future uses, will cause damaging flood heights and velocities by obstructing flows and reducing natural valley storage in the flood hazard areas.
8. To make federally subsidized flood insurance available for property in the floodplain by fulfilling the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program.

3-18-1-2 Cause of Flood Losses

These flood losses are caused by: (1) the cumulative effect of practices and obstructions in the floodplain which causes increased flood heights and velocities; and (2) the occupancy of flood hazard areas by uses vulnerable to flood damages, or by uses which create hazards to surrounding lands as a result of flood discharges caused by more intensive use of upland drainage areas in the form of residential developments, streets, parking lots, commercial buildings, storm drain construction and other uses and practices which promote increased storm water runoff.

3-18-2 Chapter 2: Definitions

For the purpose of this article only, the following definitions are adopted:

Base Flood Elevation

The elevation of the regulatory flood.

Building

see "Structure."

Cumulative Effect

The impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of an action when added to other past and present actions. A cumulative effect can result from individually minor, but collectively significant, actions taking place over a period of time.

Development

Any change or improvement to land brought about by human activity including but not limited to:

1. construction, reconstruction, or placement of a structure or any addition to a structure valued at more than $1,000, or any detached accessory structure larger than 144 square feet;
2. installation of 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, where permitted;
3. installation of utilities, erection of walls and fences, construction of roads, or similar projects; 
4. construction of flood control structures such as levees, dikes, channel improvements, etc.;
5. mining, dredging, filling, grading, excavation, or drilling operations;
6. construction and/or reconstruction of bridges or culverts;
7. storage of materials; or
8. any other activity that might change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface waters.

"Development" does not include any authorized activity with respect to a regulated drain as defined in IC 36-9-27-2, as may be amended from time to time. Neither does this definition include activities such as maintenance of existing structures and facilities such as painting, re-roofing, resurfacing roads, or gardening, plowing, and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling, grading, excavating, or constructing permanent structures.

Flood

A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow, unusual and rapid accumulation, or runoff of surface waters from any source.

Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)

The latest official map of a community on which special hazard areas (floodplain) and risk premium zones applicable to the community are delineated.

Flood Proof

Any combination of measures taken on a new or existing structure for reducing or eliminating flood damage.

Flood Protection Grade (FPG)

The elevation of the regulatory flood plus two feet at any given location in the Special Flood Hazard Area.

Floodplain

The channel proper and areas adjoining any wetlands, 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. For the purposes of this article, the floodplain is only that area covered by a "Regulatory Flood."

Floodway

The channel of a watercourse and those portions of the floodplain adjoining the channel that are required to carry and discharge flood water or flood flows of any river or stream including, but not limited to, flood flows associated with the regulatory flood.

Floodway Fringe

That area outside of the floodway within the area of the regulatory flood that is inundated from flood flows of varying depths.

Historic Structure

Any structure that is:

1. listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places (a listing maintained by the Department of Interior) or preliminarily determined by the United States Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual listing on the National Register;
2. certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered historic district or a district preliminarily designated as a registered historic district;
3. individually listed on the Register of Indiana Historic Sites and Historic Structures; or
4. individually listed on a local inventory of historic places in communities with historic preservation programs that have been certified either:

(a) by an approved state program as determined by the Secretary of Interior; or

(b) directly by the Secretary of the Interior in states without approved programs.

Irreversible

The adverse effect of actions which cannot be restored or mitigated within 60 days for herbaceous plants or 180 days for woody vegetation.

Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA)

An amendment to the currently affective FEMA map that establishes that a property is not located in a Special Flood Hazard Area. A Letter Of Map Amendment is only issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Letter of Map Revision (LOMR)

An official revision to the currently effective Federal Emergency Management Agency map. It is issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and changes flood zones, delineations, and elevations.

Lowest Floor

The lowest of the following:

1. the top of the basement floor;
2. the top of the garage floor, if the garage is the lowest level of the structure;
3. the top of the first floor of a building elevated on pilings or constructed on a crawl space with permanent openings; or
4. the top of the floor level of an enclosure below an elevated building where the walls of the enclosure provide any resistance to the flow of flood waters, unless as otherwise provided by these regulations.

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."

Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision, Existing

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 ordinance.

Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision, Expansion

The preparation of additional sites by construction of facilities for servicing lots on which manufactured homes are to be affixed (including installation of utilities, construction of streets, and either final site grading or pouring of concrete pads).

Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision, New

A manufactured home park or subdivision for which construction of facilities for servicing lots on which manufactured homes are to be affixed (including at a minimum, installation of utilities, construction of streets, and either final site grading or pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after the effective date of these floodplain management regulations.

Market Value

The most probable price for which the appraised property (in this case just the structure in question) will sell in a competitive market under all conditions necessary to a fair sale, with the buyer and seller each acting prudently, knowledgeably, and for self-interest and assuming that neither is under duress.

New Construction

For the purposes of determining insurance rates, structures for which the "start of construction" commenced on or after the effective date of the initial Flood Insurance Rate Map including any subsequent improvements to such structures. For floodplain management purposes, "new construction" means structures for which the "start of construction" commenced on or after the effective date of these floodplain management regulations, including any subsequent improvements to such structures.

Recreational Vehicle

A vehicle which is built on a single chassis, 400 square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projections, designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck, and designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling, but as temporary living quarters for recreational camping, travel, or seasonal use.

Regulatory Flood

A flood having a one percent probability of being equalled or exceeded in any given year, as calculated by a method and procedure approved by the Indiana Natural Resources Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A regulatory flood is also known by the terms base flood and 100-year flood.

Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA)

Those lands within the jurisdiction of Allen County that are subject to inundation by the regulatory flood. The Special Flood Hazard Areas of Allen County are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps of Allen County prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated 16 February 1995.

Significant

Any action which would increase the height of a regulatory flood by 0.1 feet.

Start of Construction

The date a building permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition placement, or other improvement was within 60 days of the permit date. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of pilings, the construction of columns, or any work beyond excavation or filling; or placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. For a substantial improvement, the actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor, or other actual part of a building, whether or not that alteration effects the external dimensions of the building.

Structure

Anything constructed or erected with a fixed location on the ground, or attached to something having a fixed location on the ground. For the purposes of this article, the term includes a gas or liquid storage tank, a manufactured home, or a prefabricated building. The term also includes recreational vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site for more than 180 days where allowable by this ordinance.

Substantial Damage

Damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before-damaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

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 which have incurred substantial damage, regardless of the actual repair work performed. A structure may attain substantial improvement cumulatively over time. The term does not, however, include:

1. any project for improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions, or
2. any alteration of a historic structure, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation as a historic structure.

Watershed

An area which drains to a single point. In a natural basin, this is the area contributing flow to a given place or stream.

Zone A

Shaded areas on the Flood Insurance Rate Map where no base flood elevation has been determined.

Zone AE

Shaded areas on the Flood Insurance Rate Map where base flood elevations have been determined.

Zone AH

Shaded areas on the Flood Insurance Rate Map depicting flood depths of one to three feet (usually areas of ponding) and where base flood elevations have been determined.

Zone AO

Shaded areas on the Flood Insurance Rate Map depicting flood depths of one to three feet (usually sheet flow on sloping terrain) where average depths have been determined. For areas of alluvial fan flooding, velocities have also been determined.

Zoning Administrator

The person appointed by the Allen County Plan Commission to enforce and administer the provisions of this zoning ordinance.

Zoning District

Portions of the territory within the jurisdiction of the Allen County Plan Commission shown on the zoning maps for Allen County to which a uniform set of regulations apply. These regulations prohibit and permit certain land uses per district, while also prescribing certain yard, height, and other dimensional requirements.

3-18-3 Chapter 3 - Permitted Uses in the Floodplain

3-18-3-1 Floodway

The purpose of this section is to guide development away from areas identified as floodway. The floodway, as identified, is not to be considered a zoning district. The floodway is identified as such by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the most current edition of the Allen County and Incorporated Areas Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Maps. These maps and any subsequent revisions thereto are adopted by reference and declared to be part of this section.

1. Permitted Uses. The following uses shall be permitted by right (exclusive of enclosed structures) if permitted by the zoning district in which the property is located.
1. Agricultural uses.
2. Wildlife areas, nature preserves, forests, and wetlands.
3. Parks and recreational uses, such as golf courses, driving ranges, and play areas, provided no structures or fill will be located within the floodway.
4. Public Utilities.
5. Public transportation facilities such as roads, streets and bridges, which are located on public rights of way.
6. Public works projects for flood control improvements such as levees, floodwalls, and dams.
2. Prohibited Uses.
1. All encroachments, including structures and fill, except the fill needed for public transportation facilities and public works projects for flood control improvements.

3-18-3-2 Floodway Fringe

The purpose of this section is to control and minimize development in areas subject to potential flooding, but outside an identified floodway. The floodway fringe, as identified, is not to be considered a zoning district. The floodway fringe is that area identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the most current edition of the Allen County and Incorporated Areas Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Maps as outside the floodway, but subject to inundation by the regulatory flood. These maps and any subsequent revisions thereto are adopted by reference and declared to be part of this section.

1. Permitted Uses.
1. All uses permitted in the floodway.
2. All structures permitted within the applicable zoning district, meeting all damage protection and building protection standards of this article.
3. Accessory uses permitted within the applicable zoning district, meeting all damage prevention and building protection standards of this article.
2. Prohibited Uses.
1. Fill placed for any reason other than for public and transportation facilities, utilities, flood control improvements, or approved structures as permitted in section 3- 18-3-2.

3-18-3-3 Nonforming Uses.

Any building, structure, or use that does not conform to this chapter is a nonconforming use. This use or structure may undergo substantial improvement on a one-time-only basis, whether cumulatively, or as a single act, provided it is not in the floodway, and that the new construction conforms to the flood proofing provisions and lowest floor elevations required by this article.

Disclaimer

This version of the Allen County Code is an unofficial copy of the Code converted from a paper copy provided by the Allen County Attorney. Updates are added by IPFW Helmke library as received. Contact the issuing agency or the county attorney for the definitive edition.