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Buncombe County adopts floodway text amendments to tighten life‑safety rules
Summary
The Board approved text changes to the county Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance to clarify key FEMA-based definitions, strengthen floodway standards, require emergency action plans for temporary materials, and ban temporary storage in the floodway; staff said the changes are the first phase of life‑safety amendments tied to upcoming updated flood maps.
Buncombe County commissioners held a public hearing and voted April 21 to adopt a text amendment to the county’s Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance (case ZPH2026-00002). Planning staff said the amendment clarifies FEMA-derived definitions and implements higher standards focused on critical life‑safety protections in mapped floodways.
Angela Lee, the county’s floodplain administrator and a certified floodplain manager, told the board the changes add or clarify terms such as the “conveyance shadow,” “repetitive loss,” “letter of map change,” and the county’s substantial‑improvement rules for historic structures. Lee said the amendments require temporary structures and temporary materials in the floodplain to be covered by an emergency action plan and remove allowances for temporary storage of travel trailers, shipping containers, junked vehicles and other floatable or mechanized equipment in the mapped floodway.
“The floodway is no place to store things,” Lee said, noting that debris can form large dams at bridges and dramatically increase flooding and risk to downstream properties. She added the amendments are the first phase of life‑safety ordinance updates and are intended to both improve public safety and earn points toward the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System.
Commissioners asked whether the proposed standards were tied to current or future maps. Staff replied the ordinance changes are based on the county’s current regulatory maps (2010) and that the county will align the ordinance to newly adopted maps and a new flood insurance study (the H&H hydraulics and hydrology work) once that process concludes. Staff noted some FEMA review functions have been delayed by federal interagency issues.
The board approved the amendment and a required consistency statement with the county comprehensive plan by voice vote; the motion passed unanimously.
What happens next: County staff said additional flood‑ordinance amendments are planned in phases; new mapping and the H&H study will inform further changes. The ordinance amendments take effect following the standard adoption process and will be used with the county’s regulatory maps until new maps are formally adopted.
