The title of this chapter is "Floodplain Management Ordinance."
The purpose of this chapter is to:
A. Restrict or prohibit uses that are dangerous to person and property
due to water or erosion hazards or that result in damaging increases
in erosion, flood heights or flood velocities;
B. Require that uses which are vulnerable to floods, including facilities
that serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time
of initial establishment, construction or enlargement;
C. Encourage the use of appropriate construction practices in order
to prevent or minimize flood damage in the future;
D. Control the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels and
protective barriers, which accommodate floodwaters;
E. Prevent or regulate the construction of barriers that will unnaturally
divert floodwaters or which increase flood hazards to other lands;
F. Control filling, grading, dredging and all other development activities
that may increase erosion or flood damage; and
G. Comply with federal and state floodplain management requirements.
The objectives of this chapter are to:
A. Protect human life and health;
B. Minimize the need for rescue and relief efforts undertaken with flooding
and the expenditure of public money for these efforts;
C. Minimize property loss and damage;
D. Minimize prolonged business losses and interruptions;
E. Help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and
development of floodplain areas;
F. Minimize damage to public facilities and utilities that are located
in floodplain areas; and
G. Minimize expenditure of public money for costly flood-control projects.
In the event of a conflict between the provisions of this chapter
and any other ordinance of the Borough, the more restrictive provisions
shall apply.
Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases uses in
this chapter shall be interpreted so as to give them the meanings
they have in common usage and to give this chapter its most reasonable
application.
- BASE FLOOD (also known as the "one-hundred-year flood" or "one-percent-annual-chance
flood")
- Flood having a one-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded
in a given year.
- BASEMENT
- Any area of the structure having its floor subgrade (below
ground level) on all sides.
- BUILDING
- See "structure."
- DEVELOPMENT
- Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate,
including but not limited to the construction, erection, reconstruction,
renovation, repair, expansion, or alteration of structures; the placement
of manufactured homes; streets, and other paving; utilities; filling,
grading and excavation; mining; dredging; drilling operations; storage
of equipment or materials; clearing of vegetation; and any use or
change in use of any structures or land. "Development" shall also
include any land disturbing activity on improved or unimproved land
that changes the amount of impervious or partially impervious surfaces
or that otherwise decreases the natural infiltration of precipitation
into the soil.
- ESSENTIALLY DRY SPACE
- A space which will remain dry during flooding, except for
the passage of some water vapor or minor seepage.
- FLOOD HAZARD AREA
- The floodway and the maximum area of land likely to be flooded
by a one-hundred-year flood, as identified in the most current Flood
Insurance Study and shown on the most current Flood Insurance Rate
Map for the Borough of Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania, provided
by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- FLOOD or FLOODING
- A general, but temporary condition of partial or complete
inundation of normally dry land areas from the unusual and rapid accumulation
or runoff of surface water from any source.
- FLOODPLAIN
- Any land area susceptible to being partially or completely
inundated by water from any source during the one-hundred-year flood.
The floodplain for the Borough is the area identified in the most
current Flood Insurance Study and shown on the most current Flood
Insurance Rate Map for the Borough of Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania,
provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as within the
AE Zone.
- FLOODPLAIN DEVELOPMENT PERMIT
- Permit required prior to the commencement of any development
in the floodplain.
- FLOODPROOFING
- Any combination of structural and nonstructural additions,
changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce or eliminate flood
damage to real estate or improved real property, water and sanitary
facilities, structures and their contents.
- FLOODWAY
- Channel of the stream, plus any adjacent floodplain area,
that must be kept free of encroachment so that the one-percent-annual-chance
flood can be carried without substantial increase in flood height.
Minimum federal standards limit such increases to 1.0 foot, provided
that hazardous velocities are not produced.
- FLOODWAY FRINGE
- Portion of the floodplain that could be completely obstructed
without increasing the water surface elevation of the one-percent-annual-chance
flood by more than 1.0 foot at any point.
- FREEBOARD
- A factor of safety usually expressed in feet above a flood
level for purposes of floodplain management, which compensates for
the many unknown factors that could contribute to flood heights greater
than the height calculated for a selected size flood and floodway
conditions.
- HISTORIC STRUCTURE
- Any structure that is:
- A.
Listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places
maintained by the Department of Interior or preliminarily determined
by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual
listing on the National Register;
- B.
Certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the
Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered
historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the Secretary
to qualify as a registered historic district; or
- C.
Individually listed on the Pennsylvania inventory of historic
places.
- LOWEST FLOOR
- Lowest floor of the lowest fully enclosed area, including
the basement.
- MINOR REPAIR
- The replacement of existing work with equivalent materials
for the purpose of its routine maintenance and upkeep, but not including
the cutting away of any wall, partition or portion thereof, the removal
or cutting of any structural beam or bearing support, or the removal
or change of any required means of egress or rearrangement of parts
of a structure affecting the exitway requirements, nor shall minor
repairs include addition to, alteration of, replacement or relocation
of any standpipe, water supply, sewer, drainage, drain leader, gas,
oil, waste, vent or similar piping, electric wiring or mechanical
or other work affecting public health or general safety.
- NEW CONSTRUCTION
- A structure, whether new or an improvement to an existing
structure, for which the start of construction commenced on or after
the effective date of this chapter.
- OBSTRUCTION
- Any structure or assembly of materials, including fill, or
an activity which might impede, retard or change flood flows.
- ONE-HUNDRED-YEAR FLOOD
- The highest level of flooding that, on average, is likely
to occur every 100 years, that is a flood that has a one-percent chance
of occurring each year.
- ONE-HUNDRED-YEAR FLOODPLAIN
- The floodway and the maximum area of land that is likely
to be flooded by a one-hundred-year flood as shown on the most current
Flood Insurance Rate Map for the Borough of Duncannon, Perry County,
Pennsylvania, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- RECREATIONAL VEHICLE
- A vehicle built on a single chassis; 400 square feet or less
in size when measured at the largest horizontal projection; designed
to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light-duty truck;
designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary
living quarters for recreational, camping, travel or seasonal use;
fully licensed; and ready for highway use.
- REGULATORY FLOOD-PROTECTION ELEVATION
- The one-hundred-year-flood elevation, plus a freeboard safety
factor of 1 1/2 feet.
- REPETITIVE LOSS
- Flood-related damages sustained by a structure on two separate
occasions during a ten-year period for which the cost of repairs at
the time of each such flood event equals or exceed 25% of the market
value of the structure before the damage occurred.
- SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREAS
- Areas subject to inundation by the one-hundred-year flood
as shown on the most current Flood Insurance Rate Map for the Borough
of Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania, provided by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
- SPECIAL PERMIT
- Permit required for hospitals, nursing homes, jails, and
new or substantially improved existing manufactured home parks and
subdivisions, when such development is located in all or a portion
of a floodplain. For purposes of this chapter, the term "special permit"
is substituted for the term "special exception" used in Section 301
of the Pennsylvania Flood Plain Management Act.
- START OF CONSTRUCTION
- Date the building permit was issued, provided the actual
start of repair, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition,
placement or other improvement is within 180 days of the permit date.
- STRUCTURE
- Anything constructed, erected or attached to the ground by
any combination of materials, including manufactured homes and trailers
used for human habitation. This term also means any man-made object
having an ascertainable stationary location on or in land or water
whether or not affixed to land.
- SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE
- Damage from any cause where the cost of restoration to a
before-damaged condition would equal or exceed 50% of the market value
of the structure before the damage occurred.
- SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT
- Any combination of repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation,
addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals
or exceeds 50% of the market value of the structure before the start
of construction of the improvement, regardless of the actual repair
work performed. This term includes structures which have incurred
repetitive loss. For purposes of this definition, substantial improvement
is considered to occur when the first alteration of any wall, ceiling,
floor or other structural part of the structure commences, whether
or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure.
The term does not include:
- A.
An improvement to correct existing violations of state or Borough
health, sanitary or safety code requirements and which is the minimum
necessary to assure safe living conditions; or
- B.
An alteration of an historic structure, provided the alteration
does not preclude the structure's continued designation as such.