Des Moines County holds work session to update Flood Plain Development Ordinance ahead of April readings

County land-use manager Jared Lasseter led a detailed work session March 17 on a redline draft of Des Moines County's Flood Plain Development Ordinance, describing changes staff and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources recommended to align local rules with updated state and federal guidance.

"The ordinance was first adopted in '93 after that flood year," Jared said in opening the session, and the draft is intended mainly to reflect current FEMA panels and state model ordinance updates rather than to impose novel local policy. He said the draft lists every FEMA panel and effective date to remove ambiguity about which maps and panels apply.

Why it matters: the ordinance governs development in mapped special flood hazard areas and is a condition of community participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. Jared said updates focus on consistency and clarity, not wholesale new restrictions, but they do raise obligations for future development.

Major changes explained by staff

- Map citations and panels: the draft replaces a single county index reference with an itemized list of FEMA panels and effective dates so the ordinance cites the exact panels that apply in Des Moines County.

- Definitions and damage standards: the draft cleans up redundant definitions (for example, "lowest floor") and incorporates a new term, "repetitive loss," defined as structures with two flood-related claims over a 10-year period where repairs equaled or exceeded 25% of market value. Jared said this aligns the ordinance with state and federal terminology and does not change enforcement practice.

- Substantial damage and increased cost of compliance: the ordinance keeps the alternative approach used since 2021 (either a single 50% event or two 25% events within 10 years) so owners with repeated damage can be eligible for the same assistance and compliance requirements.

- Floodway and modeling triggers: the administrator would be required to notify FEMA and take actions when development causes a modeled rise of more than one foot in base flood elevation, or when a channel is relocated. Supervisors raised practical concerns about the cost and availability of flood modeling and asked staff to clarify how often the county would need to hire consultants for such analyses.

- Bridge/culvert language removed: state-level code changes made a local exception obsolete; the draft deletes that citation for consistency with state rules.

- RV campgrounds and evacuation plans: the draft adds an article specifically requiring any campground within the floodplain that offers overnight lodging to maintain a written evacuation plan with responsible parties, trigger criteria (stream gauges, forecast-based stages) and detailed evacuation procedures.

- Nonconforming uses and variances: the proposed article clarifies that a use discontinued for six consecutive months loses its nonconforming status; if a nonconforming structure is damaged and reconstruction costs equal or exceed 50% of pre-damage market value, it must be brought into compliance unless rebuilt under an approved variance. Jared said assessed values are the likely practical metric when staff reviews requests for increased cost-of-compliance funding, but he will confirm the acceptable valuation method with DNR.

Board concerns and next steps

Supervisors pressed staff on operational and equity questions: how the county will determine market value for the 50% test, whether a six-month discontinuance period is too short for property owners working through insurance and reconstruction, and whether county conservation or existing county facilities could be inadvertently captured by the new campground language. County Engineer Brian Carter asked whether the county would be expected to fund costly hydraulic modeling every time a developer or project triggers a one-foot threshold.

Jared said he has been consulting with DNR staff and will follow up on unresolved items (valuation standards, the six-month discontinuance interpretation, the administrator's annual reporting expectations and whether the campground language should explicitly exempt county-managed campgrounds). He proposed scheduling public notice and hearings so the ordinance can go through readings in April, giving a month for public review before any final vote.

What happens next: staff will seek clarification from the Iowa DNR on several technical points, send updates to supervisors and prepare required public-notice materials for the April readings. Jared said the goal is to complete the reading process ahead of FEMA map changes that take effect in late spring.

"I'll follow up with DNR on these items," Jared said. "Once we clear up those remaining questions, we can run another work session or proceed with public notice and the readings in April."