Volusia committee asks staff to draft countywide floodplain rules, weigh compensatory-storage standards and 2-foot freeboard in high-risk areas

Volusia County’s Environmental and Natural Resources Advisory Committee on June 4 asked county staff to draft a countywide floodplain-management chapter and to bring back options for a minimum compensatory-storage standard and criteria for deviations.

The committee voted to ask staff to prepare proposed chapter 50 language requiring floodplain mitigation standards, to evaluate a compensatory-storage threshold “above 1 to 1,” and to craft variance/appeal criteria and engineering review guidelines. Members also voted separately to direct staff to make chapter 72 consistent with the chapter 50 minimums. Later in the meeting the committee unanimously endorsed asking staff to “consider a higher standard of 2 feet” of freeboard for selected high-risk areas and to return with maps showing the geographic scope.

Why it matters: county rules on compensatory storage and flood-elevation standards determine how new development is allowed to displace floodplain volume. The committee’s actions will shape minimum countywide requirements that affect developers, engineers and homeowners and will influence Volusia’s standing in FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS).

Committee members and staff debated how to balance a…