Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms shall have
the meanings indicated:
A-ZONES
Those areas shown on the Official Floodplain Zoning Map which
would be inundated by the regional flood. These areas may be numbered
or unnumbered A-Zones. The A-Zones may or may not be reflective of
flood profiles, depending on the availability of data for a given
area.
BASE FLOOD
The flood having a one-percent chance of being equaled or
exceeded in any given year, as published by FEMA as part of a flood
insurance study and depicted on a Flood Insurance Rate Map.
BULKHEAD
A geographic line along a reach of navigable water that has
been adopted as a City code and approved by the department under § 30.11
of the Wisconsin Statutes, and which allows limited filling between
this bulkhead line and the original ordinary high-water mark, except
where such filling is prohibited by the floodway provisions of this
section.
CAMPGROUND
Any parcel of land which is designed, maintained, intended
or used for sites for nonpermanent overnight use by four or more camping
units, or which is advertised or represented as a camping area.
CAMPING UNIT
Any portable device, no more than 400 square feet in area,
used as a temporary shelter, including but not limited to a camping
trailer, motor home, bus, van, pick-up truck, tent or other mobile
recreational vehicle.
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
A certification that the construction and the use of land
or a building, the elevation of fill or the lowest floor of a structure
are in compliance with all of the provisions of this section.
CHANNEL
A natural or artificial watercourse with definite bed and
banks to confine and conduct normal flow of water.
CRAWLWAY
An enclosed area below the first usable floor of a building,
generally less than five feet in height, used for access to plumbing
and electrical utilities.
DECK
An unenclosed exterior structure that has no roof or sides
but has a permeable floor which allows the infiltration of precipitation.
DEPARTMENT
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
DEVELOPMENT
Any artificial change to improved or unimproved real estate,
including, but not limited to, the construction of buildings, structures
or accessory structures; the construction of additions or alterations
to buildings, structures or accessory structures; the repair of any
damaged structure or the improvement or renovation of any structure,
regardless of percentage of damage or improvement; the placement of
buildings or structures; subdivision layout and site preparation;
mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling
operations; the storage, deposition or extraction of materials or
equipment; and the installation, repair or removal of public or private
sewage systems or water supply facilities.
DRY LAND ACCESS
A vehicular access route which is above the regional flood
elevation and which connects land located in the floodplain to land
outside the floodplain, such as a road with its surface above regional
flood elevation and wide enough for wheeled rescue and relief vehicles.
ENCROACHMENT
Any fill, structure, equipment, building, use or development
in the floodway.
EXISTING MANUFACTURED HOME PARK
A parcel of land, divided into two or more manufactured home
lots for rent or sale, on which the construction of facilities for
servicing the lots is completed before the effective date of this
section. At a minimum, this would include the installation of utilities,
the construction of streets and either final site grading or the pouring
of concrete pads.
EXPANSION TO MANUFACTURED HOME PARK
The preparation of additional sites by the construction of
facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes
are to be affixed. This includes installation of utilities, construction
of streets and either final site grading, or the pouring of concrete
pads.
FEMA
The federal agency known as the Federal Emergency Management
Agency that administers the National Flood Insurance Program.
FLOOD HAZARD BOUNDARY MAP
A map designating approximate flood hazard areas. Flood hazard
areas are designated as unnumbered A-Zones and do not contain floodway
lines or regional flood elevations. This map forms the basis for both
the regulatory and insurance aspects of the national flood insurance
program until superseded by a flood insurance study and a Flood Insurance
Rate Map.
FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAP
A map of a community on which the federal Insurance Administration
has delineated both special flood hazard areas (the floodplain) and
the risk premium zones applicable to the community. This map can only
be amended by FEMA.
FLOOD INSURANCE STUDY
A technical engineering examination, evaluation, and determination
of the local flood hazard areas. It provides maps designating those
areas affected by the regional flood and provides both flood insurance
rate zones and base flood elevations and may provide floodway lines.
The flood hazard areas are designated as numbered and unnumbered A-Zones.
Flood insurance Rate Maps that accompany the flood insurance study
form the basis for both the regulatory and the insurance aspects of
the National Flood Insurance Program.
FLOOD or FLOODING
A general and temporary condition of partial or complete
inundation of normally dry land areas caused by one of the following
conditions: a) the overflow or rise of inland waters; b) the rapid
accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source; or c) the
sudden increase caused by an unusually high water level in a natural
body of water, accompanied by a severe storm, or by an unanticipated
force of nature, such as a seiche, or by some similarly unusual event.
FLOOD PROFILE
A graph or a longitudinal profile line showing the relationship
of the water surface elevation of a flood event to locations of land
surface elevations along a stream or river.
FLOOD PROTECTION ELEVATION
An elevation of two feet of freeboard above the water surface
profile elevation designated for the regional flood.
FLOOD STORAGE
Those floodplain areas where storage of floodwaters has been
taken into account during analysis in reducing the regional flood
discharge.
FLOODFRINGE
That portion of the floodplain outside of the floodway which
is covered by floodwaters during the regional flood and associated
with standing water rather than flowing water.
FLOODPLAIN
Land which has been or may be covered by floodwater during
the regional flood, It includes the floodway and the flood fringe
and may include other designated floodplain areas for regulatory purposes.
FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT
Policy and procedures to insure wise use of floodplains,
including mapping and engineering, mitigation, education, and administration
and enforcement of floodplain regulations.
FLOODPLAIN ZONING VARIANCE
An authorization by the Board of Appeals for the construction
or maintenance of a building or structure in a manner which is inconsistent
with dimensional standards (not uses) contained in this section.
FLOODPROOF
Any combination of structural provisions, changes or adjustments
to properties and structures, water and sanitary facilities and contents
of buildings subject to flooding, to reduce or eliminate flood damage.
FLOODWAY
The channel of a river or stream and those portions of the
floodplain adjoining the channel required to carry the regional flood
discharge.
FREEBOARD
A safety factor expressed in terms of a specified number
of feet above a calculated flood level. Freeboard compensates for
any factors that cause flood heights greater than those calculated,
including ice jams, debris accumulation, wave action, obstruction
of bridge openings and floodways, the effects of watershed urbanization,
loss of flood storage areas due to development and aggregation of
the river or stream bed.
HIGH FLOOD DAMAGE POTENTIAL
Damage that could result from flooding that includes any
danger to life or health or any significant economic loss to a structure
or building and its contents.
HISTORIC STRUCTURE
Any structure that is either: a) listed individually in the
National Register of Historic Places 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;
c) individually listed on a state inventory of historic places in
states with historic preservation programs which have been approved
by the Secretary of the Interior; or d) individually listed on City's
inventory of historic places in communities with historic preservation
programs that have been certified either by an approved state program,
as determined by the Secretary of the Interior; or by the Secretary
of the Interior in states without approved programs.
INCREASE IN REGIONAL FLOOD HEIGHT
A calculated upward rise in the regional flood elevation,
equal to or greater than 0.01 foot, based on a comparison of existing
conditions and proposed conditions which are directly attributable
to development in the floodplain but not attributable to manipulation
of mathematical variables such as roughness factors, expansion and
contraction coefficients and discharge.
LAND USE
Any nonstructural use made of unimproved or improved real
estate.
MANUFACTURED HOME
A structure transportable in one or more sections, which
is built on a permanent chassis and is designed to be used with or
without a permanent foundation when connected to required utilities.
"Manufactured home" includes a mobile home but does not include a
mobile recreational vehicle.
NEW CONSTRUCTION
Structures for which the start of construction commenced
on or after the effective date of floodplain zoning regulations adopted
by the City and includes any later improvements to such structures.
To determine flood insurance rates, it includes any structures for
which the start of construction commenced on or after the effective
date of an initial Flood Insurance Rate Map or after December 31,
1974, whichever is later, and includes any later improvements to such
structures.
OBSTRUCTION TO FLOW
Any development which blocks the conveyance of floodwaters
such that this development alone or with any future development will
cause an increase in regional flood eight.
OFFICIAL FLOODPLAIN ZONING MAP
Those maps, adopted and made part of this section, as described
in Subsection (1)(e)2., which has been approved by the department
and FEMA.
OPEN SPACE USE
Those uses having a relatively low flood damage potential
and not involving structures.
ORDINARY HIGHWATER MARK
The point on the bank or shore up to which the presence and
action of surface water is so continuous as to leave a distinctive
mark such as by erosion, destruction or prevention of terrestrial
vegetation, predominance of aquatic vegetation, or other easily recognized
characteristic.
PRIVATE SEWAGE SYSTEM
A sewage treatment and disposal system serving one structure
with a septic tank and soil absorption field located on the same parcel
as the structure. It also means an alternative sewage system approved
by the department of safety and professional services, including a
substitute for the septic tank or soil absorption field, a holding
tank, a system serving more than one structure, or a system located
on a different parcel than the structure.
PUBLIC UTILITIES
Those utilities using underground or overhead transmission
lines such as electric, telephone and telegraph, and distribution
and collection systems such as water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer.
REASONABLY SAFE FROM FLOODING
Base floodwaters will not inundate the land or damage structures
to be removed from the special flood hazard area and that any subsurface
waters related to the base flood will not damage existing or proposed
buildings.
REGIONAL FLOOD
A flood determined to be representative of large floods known
to have occurred in Wisconsin. A regional flood is a flood with a
one-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year,
and if depicted on the Flood Insurance Rate Map, the regional flood
elevation is equivalent to the base flood elevation.
START OF CONSTRUCTION
The date the building permit was issued, provided the actual
start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition,
placement, or other improvement was within 180 days of the permit
date. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent
construction on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the
installation of piles, the construction of columns, or any work beyond
initial excavation, or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation.
Permanent construction does not include land preparation, such as
clearing, grading and filling, nor does it include the installation
of streets or walkways, nor does it include excavation for a basement,
footings, piers or foundations or the erection of temporary forms,
nor does it include the installation on the property of accessory
structure, such as garages or sheds not occupied as dwelling units
or not part of the main structure. For an alteration, the actual start
of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor
or other structural part of a building, whether or not that alteration
affects the external dimensions of the building.
SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE
Damage of any origin sustained by a structure, whereby the
cost of restoring the structure to its pre-damaged condition would
equal or exceed 50% of the equalized assessed value of the structure
before the damage occurred.
WATER SURFACE PROFILE
A graphical representation showing the elevation of the water
surface of a watercourse for each position along a reach of river
or stream at a certain flood flow. A water surface profile of the
regional flood is used in regulating floodplain areas.
WATERSHED
The entire region contributing runoff or surface water to
a watercourse or body of water.
WELL
An excavation opening in the ground made by digging, boring,
drilling, driving or other methods, to obtain groundwater regardless
of its intended use.