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Commission votes to adopt updated FEMA flood maps and minor floodplain-ordinance revisions
Summary
Planning commission approved an amendment to the flood-hazard district code to incorporate FEMA’s revised flood-insurance rate maps dated March 25, 2025, and added FEMA-required language about ensuring building sites are 'reasonably safe from flooding' plus a definition for manufactured-home subdivisions.
The Florence City Planning Commission voted to adopt updated flood-hazard mapping and related code revisions to remain consistent with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) materials dated March 25, 2025.
Planning staff and floodplain coordinators reported that the 2025 maps showed only minor changes within the city’s boundary; most revisions were small fringe adjustments or property-owner-driven Letters of Map Amendment that FEMA had already incorporated. Staff said the most notable change on the county maps was the delineation of a floodplain area off Alligator Road, but that area lies outside city limits.
The code amendments include updating the referenced flood-insurance study date to March 25, 2025, adding language that staff “review all permit applications to determine whether proposed building sites will be reasonably safe from flooding” (FEMA-prescribed wording), and adding the FEMA definition of a “new manufactured home park or subdivision” tied to the 1981 pre-FIRM/post-FIRM distinction. Staff said the new verbiage applies only to permits issued in the regulated floodplain, which is limited to stream and tributary corridors such as Jeffrey’s Creek, Alligator Swamp, Mill Pond and parts of Black Creek.
Commissioners voted to approve the ordinance amendment. Staff said no appeals were received for the preliminary maps within the city and that the changes were technical and limited in scope.
