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Owensboro planners introduce floodplain text amendments to preserve flood insurance discounts
Summary
On first reading the commission introduced changes to floodplain definitions to maintain Community Rating System points, including removing a 36-inch manufactured-home elevation clause and reducing the substantial improvement threshold from 50% to 49%.
The Owensboro Board of Commissioners on March 4 introduced Ordinance 3-2025 on first reading, proposing text amendments to Article 18 of the Owensboro Metropolitan Zoning Ordinance covering floodplain definitions and standards for manufactured homes and recreational vehicles.
Brian Howard, executive director of the Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission, told the commission that both Owensboro and Davis County participate in the Community Rating System (CRS), a voluntary program that can lower residents' federal flood insurance premiums. Howard said a recent CRS audit identified two areas the community should change.
Howard said the first is eliminating language that requires manufactured homes be elevated "1 foot above the base flood elevation or 36 inches above ground level." He said keeping the 36-inch-above-ground clause could allow a home below base flood elevation to be constructed "within the base flood elevation" and would limit the community to a 5% insurance premium discount; "right now you're at a 15%" discount, he said.
The second change would adjust the substantial-improvement definition: changing the five-year improvement threshold from 50% of a structure's value to 49%. Howard described the change as a small technical amendment that "should have negligible impact as far as what type of home improvements people would be able to do to their homes," but it could gain additional CRS points and help maintain or improve the flood insurance discount for local residents.
The ordinance was introduced and publicly read on first reading; the Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission had already approved the proposed amendment. No final vote was taken; the item will return for second reading at a later meeting.
