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Council bans new townhome construction in mapped 100‑year floodplain, with narrow exemptions
Summary
The council adopted an ordinance amending land-use rules to prohibit new townhouse buildings in the regulatory 100‑year floodplain, allowing limited exceptions only after site selection and flood‑risk justification and enhanced resilient design.
The Town Council voted Aug. 11 to amend its land‑use ordinance to prohibit construction of new townhome buildings in the mapped 100‑year regulatory floodplain, with a process for narrow exemptions only when no feasible alternative exists.
Staff said the change is intended to reduce future repair and recovery costs and align local policy with post‑Helene resiliency goals. The adopted text bars new townhouse construction in the 100‑year floodplain while preserving the ability to repair and rehabilitate existing structures and to allow exceptions after a documented site‑selection analysis, a professional flood‑risk assessment, enhanced resilience design exceeding base flood elevation requirements, and council approval.
Assistant staff explained the ordinance references currently mapped regulatory flood data (the town uses FEMA's regulatory maps) and that future, more detailed inundation mapping from Western Carolina University could further inform decisions. Council members opted to apply the rule to the 100‑year regulatory floodplain rather than the 500‑year mapping the staff also presented.
Why this matters: Town staff framed the change as a way to lower long‑term risk to residents and infrastructure and reduce the likelihood of repetitive FEMA repairs. The ordinance leaves in place repair and replacement for existing facilities and requires a higher burden of proof and resilient design for any exception.
Implementation and next steps: The ordinance takes effect per standard adoption processes. Staff said any developer seeking an exemption would need to provide engineering analysis and that the council could require additional conditions or deny requests based on the risk assessment and lack of feasible alternatives.
Ending: Council members supported the measure as a step toward formalizing resilience in land-use policy while noting the town will continue refining flood-risk information as Western Carolina University supplies more precise inundation mapping.
