Washington County to consider floodplain ordinance changes

WASHINGTON - County supervisors have scheduled a June 21 public hearing for a new floodplain management ordinance after the Iowa DNR suggested several changes to the county’s current code.

“The last time it was passed here by the Board of Supervisors was 2013, so a lot of the definitions have changed for the new code,” Washington County Environmental Health Director Jason Taylor said at a supervisor meeting last week. “We’re just asking to update the ordinance to bring it up to today’s standard.”

Supervisor Marcus Fedler said he had concerns about over-regulation, and encouraged public comment on the proposal at the policy’s first reading later this month.

“It’s very interesting how they change definitions over the years to include more things,” he said. “The only place you can buy flood insurance from is the federal government. I encourage people to read it ... and I’d like public comment, a lot of it.”

Most changes of the code would only affect new and “substantially improved” structures in the governed areas, and would only apply in unincorporated areas of the county, since cities have their own ordinances, according to Taylor.

“I only take care of the unincorporated areas of the county,” he said. “That’s where the Board of Supervisors ends, so Kalona, for example would have their own ordinance take care of theirs.”

Other changes include a requirement that new buildings that would be isolated by a 100-year flood event include a means of access that rises above that “base flood elevation,” though exceptions could be granted based on the area’s estimated flood warning time.

For new and improved buildings in the floodplain, the new code would require that appliances and utilities like electric meters, water heaters and gas lines be kept above the flood zone, or, for non-residences, sufficiently flood-proofed.

In terms of definition changes, the proposed changes would add grain storage facilities and “appurtenant structures” to the list of developments governed by the code, alongside some other minutiae.

The ordinance also adds language governing “maximum damage potential developments,” like hospitals and hazardous material storage sites. The proposed changes require such buildings to be heavily flood-proofed or stand at least a foot above the 500-year floodplain, another new definition in the proposed rules.

Taylor said the new building classification would not effect any currently existing buildings in the county.

“The way I understand it, when I talk to the DNR, is that that (building classification) would only effect chemical plants and things like that if they decide to come into the county,” he said.

The 500-year floodplain is another area of complication. While most counties in Iowa were surveyed with 100-year and 500-year flood insurance rates after widespread flooding in 2008, Iowa DNR Floodplain Mapping Coordinator Scott Ralston said Washington County was one of 16 that lacked 500-year floodplain data in its Flood Insurance Rate Maps.

"We decided it was a waste of money to restudy the areas ... back in 2010 or 2011,“ Ralston said. ”We decided to just let FEMA go ahead and update those studies, and so we did not hire contractors to re-do all the panels. That’s why there’s only the 100-year floodplain in those.“

Iowa DNR National Flood Insurance Program Specialist Jason Conn said communities should still include the definition, even for those 16 counties without the data on their insurance rate maps.

“Washington County will be getting new floodplain maps within five to six years, and when those new maps come out, they will have the 500-year floodplain illustrated on them,” he said. “Just because the (current) maps don’t include the 500-year floodplain doesn’t mean this regulation isn’t required.”

Taylor said the ordinance would still only govern areas in the 100-year floodplain, officially called the “Special Flood Hazard Area” under the new code, while the new definitions are a way to keep up with insurance requirements.

“In this ordinance, it doesn’t do anything with zone X, which would be the 500-year floodplain,” he said. “The Special Flood Hazard Area is what the code will pertain to, not the 500-year. That’s the only thing this ordinance covers, the 500-year thing had to be put in because we get money from the federal government.”

The ordinance’s public hearing will be part of the Washington County Supervisors regular meeting at 9 a.m. in their chambers at the Washington County Courthouse on June 21.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com