Loveland advances permits for all development in floodplain overlay zone
Loveland City Council approved floodplain changes on first reading that would require a permit for all development in the city’s Floodplain Overlay Zone.
Loveland City Council approved floodplain changes on first reading that would require a permit for all development in the city’s Floodplain Overlay Zone.
The ordinance is scheduled for a second reading Nov. 4. Loveland must adopt code changes incorporating updated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maps and additional federal requirements by Nov. 27 to avoid suspension from the National Flood Insurance Program. The city’s staff report says that if Loveland were suspended, residents could no longer buy or renew program flood insurance or obtain federally backed mortgages and loans in identified flood hazard areas. It says federal flood disaster aid would be blocked, grants from several agencies could not be awarded to the city, and Loveland would be removed from FEMA’s Community Rating System.
A staff member said Loveland’s participation in the Community Rating System gives residents a 25% discount on flood insurance rates. The staff member estimated the city would receive approximately $59 million in federal assistance if a flood like the one in 2013 occurred this year. “This is a huge, huge undertaking,” a council member said, thanking staff and supporting the ordinance as a way to keep flood insurance available and the city eligible for FEMA disaster assistance and grants.
New maps show greater flood impacts along the south side of State Highway 402 between US287 and CR-9E, a city staff memorandum says. It attributes the difference primarily to higher flood discharges in updated modeling, which shows more water overtopping the highway at St. Louis Avenue. Under the ordinance, overlay boundaries would follow FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Map accompanying the Larimer County Flood Insurance Study effective Nov. 27 and would be added to Loveland’s Official Zoning Map.
The amended code removes the definition of regulatory flood datum and sets the regulatory flood protection elevation at 1½ feet above the base flood elevation. New and substantially improved critical facilities, and new additions to them, in special flood hazard areas would have to be outside those areas or have their lowest floor elevated or floodproofed to at least two feet above the base flood elevation. When practical, new critical facilities would also need continuous access that stays dry during a 100-year flood.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to review the proposed Unified Development Code amendments Oct. 26. Its discussion and vote remain pending.