Loveland commission backs flood maps, rules to preserve insurance access

The Loveland Planning Commission recommended that City Council adopt updated Big Thompson River flood maps and floodplain rules by Nov. 27 to preserve residents’ access to federal flood insurance.

By that date, Loveland must show the Federal Emergency Management Agency it has amended its floodplain building code and regulations or face suspension from the National Flood Insurance Program. The city’s staff report says suspension would prevent residents from buying or renewing program flood insurance or obtaining federally backed mortgages or loans in identified flood hazard areas. It says Loveland would lose access to certain federal grants and disaster assistance and leave FEMA’s Community Rating System. That rating program cuts policyholders’ flood-insurance premiums by 25%, staff said.

The proposed rules would eliminate a permit exemption for routine or major irrigation-ditch maintenance that does not involve fill raising the base flood elevation. “If they need to come to the city to get a permit for that, that's burdensome in my view,” a commissioner said of small property owners clearing silt. The state wants the city to know about significant ditch-company construction that could affect the floodplain, such as rebuilding headworks or constructing culverts, staff said.

Colorado’s mapping effort followed the September 2013 floods and was intended to guide long-term land-use and resiliency planning, the city’s staff report says. It identifies the main exception to otherwise minor mapping changes on the south side of Highway 402 between U.S. 287 and County Road 9E, where the model uses higher flood discharges. Near St. Louis, water overtops the highway, and the model includes more river flow than was present in 2013, expanding the mapped floodplain there, staff said. Land south of Highway 402 east of Taft Avenue remains developable, but development there would require raising the land 18 inches above the floodplain for protection, staff said.

The updated study places 96 structures in Loveland’s floodplain, up from 85, staff said. That includes 20 residential structures, down from 24, and 76 other structures, up from 61. Across most of the community, the new floodplain boundary lies close to the line marking the 2013 flood, staff said. Loveland and Larimer County have regulated development using FEMA’s preliminary maps since 2021, and floodplain development in Loveland has been virtually nonexistent since then, staff said.

Staff said City Council approved the measure on first reading Oct. 6. The commission’s recommendation is for the council’s second reading.