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City reviews FEMA CRS standing and proposes floodplain ordinance changes including 1-foot freeboard
Summary
City staff briefed the commission on the FEMA Community Rating System review, a new detention pond under construction and proposed floodplain ordinance language to add mechanical/equipment elevations and a 1-foot freeboard.
City engineering staff updated the Mayor and Board of Commissioners on Enid’s standing in FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS), recent mapping details and proposed changes to the city’s floodplain ordinance intended to strengthen flood-protection credits.
Raleigh (presenter, Engineering) said the city is currently at CRS Class 9 — which yields approximately a 5% flood-insurance discount for properties in the mapped floodplain — and the city is targeting a move to Class 8 by documenting additional maintenance and program measures. The CRS review is periodic and FEMA assesses the city roughly every five years; staff said final results from the most recent review are pending and could take months.
Staff highlighted a detention project currently under construction, the Waller Detention Pond, and said it is intended to reduce flows in an undersized downstream drainage line behind Waller School. Staff said infrastructure maintenance and additional documented procedures are key elements that can raise CRS points. "This will be added benefit to our flood protection area," Raleigh said of the detention pond.
As part of the path to a higher CRS class, staff proposed changes to Title 13, Chapter 1 (Flood Damage Prevention) to extend regulatory coverage to mechanical and equipment items and to require new structures in the floodplain to be built at least 1 foot above the 100-year (1% annual-chance) base flood elevation. Engineering staff said the ordinance change is intended to earn additional CRS points and that items added now may be evaluated by FEMA during the next review cycle. Staff confirmed that the changes would apply at permitting to new construction and to improvements that meet thresholds (commonly the 50% substantial-improvement threshold) rather than to minor repairs.
Commissioners asked whether the mechanical/equipment requirement would be applied retroactively to ordinary replacements such as an air-conditioning unit; staff said routine, small replacements that do not meet the threshold for substantial improvement would not trigger elevation requirements. Staff also walked commissioners through public GIS tools showing the mapped 100-year and 500-year flood areas and explained how residents can confirm their property’s designation using the city’s map layers.
No formal action was taken; staff said they will bring the ordinance amendments back for formal consideration and a vote at a subsequent meeting. Engineering staff said increasing the CRS class is a multi-year effort that will combine maintenance records, projects and updated ordinance language.
