Star seeks floodplain fixes to match FEMA, adds limits on cumulative improvements
Loading...
Summary
Staff proposed updates to Star's floodplain ordinance to align with FEMA and state definitions, change base‑flood opening requirements, permit irrigation‑district maintenance without separate flood applications, and add a three‑year rolling limit to cumulative 'substantial improvement' calculations.
At the Feb. 10 code‑amendments workshop, Ryan Morgan, the city's floodplain administrator, summarized a series of technical changes to the floodplain ordinance intended to bring Star into closer alignment with FEMA and state practice.
Morgan said many changes are clerical or definitional, including removing obsolete FEMA 'A1/A2' labels and replacing them with current zone names. He proposed clarifying the floodplain development permit name and requiring applicants to include base‑flood elevation contours and similar documentation as part of applications.
One substantive change would remove the automatic requirement that every development perform a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR/"Clomar" in staff notes). Morgan said LOMR applications are expensive (he cited about $8,500 for the FEMA application alone) and that the city should have discretion to require them only for projects where they are necessary rather than for every development in mapped floodplain areas.
Morgan also proposed an operational limit to the substantial‑improvement rule: a three‑year rolling period during which successive building improvements would be combined for the 50% threshold that triggers full compliance with current elevation standards. He said he found example policies ranging from six months to five years and settled on three years as a middle ground.
On flood‑opening wording, Morgan corrected a persistent code error. The draft would require that flood opening bottoms be no more than 1 foot above the interior/exterior grade as FEMA requires so that openings equalize hydrostatic pressure; staff said the previous phrasing was inconsistent with FEMA practice.
Next steps: staff will return final ordinance language and will coordinate timing with any projects expected to be affected; no vote was held at the workshop.
