Agenda - Planning Commission - 04/03/2008

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high-danger neighborhoods during disaster events and also by ensur- ing that facilities housing first responders are not located in at-risk areas. ZONING REGULATIONS When preparing a comprehensive plan and then adopting the imple- menting zoning regulations, a com- munity should include a risk analy- sis as one of the criteria for determining the land use for an area. A risk analysis includes researching hazards that have affected an area in the past, study- ing scientific data that details risk for various hazards to an area, reviewing the risk assessment sec- tion of the state's mitigation plan to ensure all risks are covered, analyz- ing the probability of various haz- ards striking the area, reviewing geography, topography, and weather patterns, and looking at the location of existing development to determine what can be impacted by various hazards. After determining the risks of a given area, a community can then decide whether it is advisable to allow various uses in the area or if minimum standards need to be changed to reduce the vulnerability of the community. For example, do you allow high-density residential development in an area that is expected to have five feet of flood- ing every 10 years, or do you require development to stay on higher land and let the remainder of the land flood? Let's take a look at some communities and how their zoning or floodplain regulations have been crafted to support a reduction in risk for areas subject to flood dam- age. The communities and the crite- ria that make their ordinances more restrictive are included in the matrix on this page. The primary criteria that the communities used to create more restrictive ordinances are: o including the floodplain regula- tions as an overlay in the zoning ordinance; Community or Ordinance Name Overlay District N y Stream Setback (Buffer) +1 o Community or Ordinance Name Incentives Critical Facilities Other Criteria Lim"ited use in all floodplain districts Urban Floodway (fW) District Urban Floodplain Conservancy Overlay (FCO) District Urban Floodplain Fringe Overlay (FFO) District General Floodplain Overlay (GFO) District Racine County, WI None in floodplain Limited use offloodway, RoseviUe, CA None in floodway only undeveloped land allowed ..........................................................................................................................?p..:.~..~?.~.~.:..~.~.:.~............................... Exeter, NH ....................................................................................................................................................................................... Auburn, ME ..~............................................~...u...................................................................................~...............................................n .~.~~~~.~~~.~?~~~~.~................................................~.~.~~.!~.~.~.~.?~~.Y...........~!.T.i.~:.?~~~.~!..~~.?.~~~y.................... Only for buffers Incentives are: o minimum lot size o reduced setbacks 0, open space credit ............................................~...~.~~~!~.?~.~.~.~.............................................................................................................. Central Point, OR None in floodplain Planned unit development criteria ..................,......................................................................................................!.~.~.l.~.?:..p.~:~.:.~i.~.~.~~!~:.~L~:.~!~~:.~. Northeastern Illinois Limited use of floodway, None in floodway Model Ordinances compensatory storage 1.5/1 Mecklenburg County, NC o adding freeboards to the ordinance; o restricting the amount of rise in the flood ele- vations that development can cause; · requiring setbacks from the stream for devel- opment;, . limiting the use of the floodway; and o including and providing incentives for devel- opers to design to these specifications. Overlay zones. Every community that partici- pates in NFIP must adopt a floodplain manage- ment ordinance. Some communities have hybrid ordinances, but by far most of the communities adopt versions of state model ordinances thatwill either meet the minimum requirements of NFIP or a combination of any floodplain regulations that their state may have adopted and the federal regu- lations. The floodplain ordinances are enforced in areas that are identified as floodplain on FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). Since the floodplains hidude areas that still have their basic ZONING PRACTICE 3.08 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION I page 51 5 3