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Planning Commission adopts floodplain overlay revisions to align with state and FEMA guidance
Summary
The commission approved ordinance 2085 to revise the town's floodplain overlay rules: changing terminology to 'special flood hazard area' and '1% annual chance storm event,' raising minimum finished-floor elevation to base flood elevation plus 1.5 feet, allowing RVs up to 180 days, and commissioning a watershed study funded by a pending grant.
The Blacksburg Planning Commission voted to approve ordinance 2085, which revises the town's floodplain overlay district to be more consistent with state model language and FEMA terminology.
Planning staff member Carolyn Howard told commissioners the revisions respond to requirements from DCR and recent development proposals that highlighted submittal and permit clarity needs. "We are proposing revisions to our floodplain overlay district ordinance," Howard said, explaining that the ordinance will use the term "special flood hazard area" and refer to the "1% annual chance storm event" rather than the outdated "100-year storm" phrasing. Howard summarized major changes: allowing recreational vehicles on a property for up to 180 days, prohibiting increases in flow velocity off-site as a permit criterion, permitting increases in elevation or velocity only within the subject property, and setting a minimum lowest floor elevation at the calculated base flood elevation plus 1.5 feet.
Howard also said the town had been awarded, and is "just waiting for the paperwork" for, a community flood preparedness fund grant to pay for a watershed study that will help establish base flood elevations downtown and prioritize water-quality and channel improvements. She told the commission the study was expected "late '26, but probably early '27." The draft ordinance has been reviewed and approved by DCR and is proceeding through the town's public process.
A commissioner moved to approve ordinance 2085, the proposed floodplain overlay district revisions; the motion was seconded and passed with no recorded opposition. There were no public comments on the ordinance at the meeting. The action advances the ordinance through the local adoption process and anticipates follow-up technical work from the watershed study.
