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Salem to update Flood Hazard Overlay District ordinance to reference new FEMA maps
Summary
City planners presented a narrow update to the Flood Hazard Overlay District (FHOD) zoning ordinance on April 16 to reference revised FEMA maps that take effect July 8, 2025; presenters and staff said the changes are limited and will not add or remove homes from flood zones but will keep residents eligible for federal flood insurance.
Tom Devine, the senior planner who presented the revision to Salem’s Flood Hazard Overlay District zoning ordinance, told a joint meeting of the Salem City Council and the planning board on April 16 that the update is primarily technical and map-driven.
“This is mainly to update the reference to flood maps that have been revised since the ordinance was last amended,” Devine said, adding that the ordinance also includes a few minor edits the state floodplain office requested.
The revision updates the ordinance to reference new FEMA flood maps scheduled to go into effect July 8, 2025, and makes a handful of state-requested text changes, Devine said. He told the boards the changes are limited in scope and will not add or remove homes from FEMA flood zones: “these map changes, they are pretty limited in Salem. There's no homes added to the flood zones or removed, and nobody's flood zones, nobody's flood insurance is changing,” Devine said.
Devine described a few substantive ordinance edits requested by the state: adding “A” zones to the FHOD provisions for recreational vehicles; adding a requirement that subdivision and development proposals demonstrate adequate drainage; and removing hard-coded postal addresses for state and federal offices. On drainage, Devine said Salem is relying on other, measurable permit standards (subdivision rules, Wetlands Protection Act requirements, the local wetlands ordinance, stormwater standards and Engineering Department rules) rather than defining “adequate drainage” inside the FHOD text itself.
He also proposed the ordinance’s effective date be tied to the FEMA map effective date (July 8, 2025) rather than the adoption date. Devine showed three limited map changes in the city—around Spring Pond, Thompson’s Meadow and the South Salem ponds—describing those changes as shifts in surface-water flood zones rather than expansions that add homes.
No councilors or planning board members raised substantive questions at the hearing. Devine closed by directing homeowners who want to review the maps or flood insurance options to FEMA’s map service center and to floodsmart.gov for federal insurance information.
The public hearing was closed and the matter was referred to the planning board for review and recommendation.
Resources and contacts: Devine provided contact information and pointed attendees to msc.fema.gov and floodsmart.gov.
Ending: The planning board and city council will receive the board’s recommendation before any formal adoption; Devine recommended the ordinance go into effect on the FEMA map effective date, July 8, 2025.
