[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Columbia
as Ch. 15.60 of the 1997 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter is enacted pursuant to the police powers granted
to this City by 65 ILCS 5/1-2-1, 5/11-12-12, 5/11-30-2, 5/11-30-8
and 5/11-31-2 in order to accomplish the following purposes:
A.
To prevent unwise developments from increasing flood or drainage
hazards to others;
B.
To protect new buildings and major improvements to buildings from
flood damage;
C.
To protect human life and health from the hazards of flooding;
D.
To lessen the burden on the taxpayer for flood control projects,
repairs to flood-damaged public facilities and utilities, and flood
rescue and relief operations;
E.
To maintain property values and a stable tax base by minimizing the
potential for creating flood blighted areas; and
F.
To make federally subsidized flood insurance available for property
in the City by fulfilling the requirements of the National Flood Insurance
Program.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
are adopted:
The flood having a one-percent probability of being equalled or exceeded in any given year. The base flood is also known as the "one-hundred-year flood." The base flood elevation at any location is as defined in § 170-4.
A structure that is principally above ground and is enclosed
by walls and a roof. The term includes a gas or liquid storage tank,
a manufactured home or a prefabricated building. The term also includes
recreational vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site
for more than 180 days.
Any man-made change to real estate, including:
Construction, reconstruction or placement of a building or any
addition to a building valued at more than $1,000;
Installing a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for
a manufactured home or installing a travel-trailer on a site for more
than 180 days;
Installing utilities, construction of roads, or similar projects;
Construction or erection of levees, walls, fences, bridges or
culverts;
Drilling, mining, filling, dredging, grading, excavating or
other nonagricultural alterations of the ground surface;
Storage of materials; or
Any other activity that might change the direction, height or
velocity of floodwaters or surface waters.
Development does not include maintenance of existing buildings
and facilities such as reroofing; resurfacing roads; or gardening,
plowing and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling,
grading or construction of levees.
A general and temporary condition of inundation of normally
dry land areas from the overflow, the unusual and rapid accumulation,
or the runoff of surface waters from any source.
That portion of the SFHA required to store and convey the
base flood. The floodway for the SFHAs of the Mississippi River and
Carr and Palmer Creeks shall be as delineated on the Flood Insurance
Rate Map applicable to the City. The floodway for each of the remaining
SFHAs of the City shall be according to the best data available to
the Illinois State Water Survey Floodplain Information Repository.
The elevation of the base flood plus one foot at any given
location in the SFHA.
Any SFHA subject to flooding from a river, creek, intermittent
stream, ditch or any other identified channel. This term does not
include areas subject to flooding from lakes (except public bodies
of water), ponding areas, areas of sheet flow, or other areas not
subject to overbank flooding.
The lands within the jurisdiction of the City that are subject
to inundation by the base flood. The SFHAs of the City are generally
identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map of the City prepared
by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated September 5,
1990. The SFHAs of those parts of unincorporated Monroe County that
are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City or that may
be annexed into the City are generally identified as such on the Flood
Insurance Rate Map prepared for Monroe County by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and dated April 5, 1988.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
The Building Official, with the advice and counsel of the City
Engineer when needed, shall be responsible for the general administration
and enforcement of this chapter, including but not limited to the
following duties:
A.
Ensure that all development activities with the SFHAs in the jurisdiction
of the City meet the requirements of this chapter;
B.
Provide information and assistance to citizens upon request about
permit procedures and floodplain construction techniques;
C.
Ensure that construction authorization has been granted by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Water Resources, for all development projects subject to § 170-6, and maintain a record of such authorization;
D.
Maintain a record of the as-built elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all buildings subject to § 170-7;
E.
Maintain a record of the engineer's certificate and the as-built
floodproofed elevation of all buildings subject to § 170-7C;
F.
Inspect all development projects to ensure they comply with the provisions
of this chapter;
G.
Cooperate with state and federal floodplain management agencies to
improve base flood and floodway data and to improve the administration
of this chapter; submit reports as required for the National Flood
Insurance Program;
H.
Maintain for public inspection and furnish upon request base flood
data, SFHA maps, copies of federal or state permit documents and as-built
elevation and floodproofing data for all buildings constructed subject
to this chapter.
This chapter's protection standard is the base flood. The best
available base flood data are listed below. Whenever a party disagrees
with the best available data, the party may finance the detailed engineering
study needed to replace existing data with better data and submit
it to the State Water Survey.
A.
The base flood elevation for the SFHAs of the Mississippi River,
Carr Creek and Palmer Creek shall be as delineated on the one-hundred-year
flood profiles in the Flood Insurance Study of the City prepared by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated September 5, 1990.
B.
The base flood elevation for each SFHA delineated as an AH Zone or
AO Zone shall be that elevation (or depth) delineated on the Flood
Insurance Rate Map of the City.
C.
The base flood elevation for each of the remaining SFHAs delineated
as an A Zone on the Flood Insurance Rate Map of the City shall be
according to the best data available to the Illinois State Water Survey
Floodplain Information Repository. When no base flood elevation exists,
the base flood elevation shall be the one-hundred-year flood depth
calculated according to the formulas presented in Depth and Frequency
of Floods in Illinois published by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1976.
D.
The base flood elevation for the SFHAs of those parts of unincorporated
Monroe County that are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of
the City or that may be annexed into the City shall be as delineated
on the one-hundred-year flood profiles in the Flood Insurance Study
of Monroe County prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
and dated April 5, 1988.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
No person, firm, corporation or governmental body not exempted
by state law shall commence any development in the SFHA without first
obtaining a development permit from the Building Official. The Building
Official shall not issue a development permit if the proposed development
does not meet the requirements of this chapter.
A.
The application for a development permit shall be accompanied by drawings of the site, drawn to scale, showing property line dimensions; existing grade elevations and all changes in grade resulting from excavation or filling; the location and dimensions of all buildings and additions to buildings; and the elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all proposed buildings subject to the requirements of § 170-7.
B.
Upon receipt of an application for a development permit, the Building
Official shall compare the elevation of the site to the base flood
elevation. Any development located on land that can be shown to have
been higher than the base flood elevation as of the date of the site's
first Flood Insurance Rate Map identification is not located in the
SFHA and therefore not subject to the requirements of this chapter.
The Building Official shall maintain documentation of the existing
ground elevation at the development site and certification that this
ground elevation existed prior to the date of the site's first Flood
Insurance Rate Map identification.
C.
The Building Official shall inform the applicant of any and all other
local, state and federal permits that may be required for this type
of development activity.
D.
The Building Official shall not issue the development permit unless
all required federal and state permits have been obtained.
No development in the SFHA shall create a damaging or potentially
damaging increase in flood heights or velocity or threat to public
health and safety.
A.
Within the floodway identified on the Flood Insurance Rate Map applicable
to Columbia, Illinois, the following standards shall apply:
(1)
Except as provided in Subsection A(2) of this section, no development shall be allowed which, acting in combination with existing or future similar works, will cause any increase in the base flood elevation. The specific development activities identified in Subsection B(2) of this section shall be considered as meeting this requirement.
(2)
No increase in the base flood elevation may be permitted unless:
(a)
The total cumulative effect of the proposed development, when
combined with all other existing and anticipated development, will
not increase the base flood elevation more than 1.0 foot for the affected
hydraulic reach of the stream and will not increase flood damages
or potential flood damages;
(b)
A permit has been issued by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Water Resources, as required in Subsection B(1) of this section; and
(c)
For all projects involving channel modifications or fill (including
levees), the City shall submit sufficient data to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to revise the regulatory flood data.
B.
Within all other riverine SFHAs, the following standards shall apply:
(1)
In addition to the other requirements of this chapter, a development
permit for a site located in a floodway (or in a riverine SFHA where
no floodway has been identified) shall not be issued unless the applicant
first obtains a permit or written documentation that a permit is not
required from the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division
of Water Resources, issued pursuant to the Rivers, Lakes and Streams
Act, 615 ILCS 5/4.9 et seq.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
(2)
The following activities may be constructed without the individual permit required in Subsection B(1) of this section in accordance with statewide permits issued by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Water Resources, provided the activities do not involve placement of fill, change of grade, or construction in the normal channel; such activities must still meet the other requirements of this chapter:
(a)
The construction of wells, septic tanks and underground utility
lines not crossing a lake or stream;
(b)
The construction of light poles, sign posts and similar structures;
(c)
The construction of sidewalks, driveways, athletic fields (excluding
fences), patios and similar surfaces which are built at grade;
(d)
The construction of properly anchored, unwalled, open structures
such as playground equipment, pavilions and carports;
(e)
The placement of properly anchored buildings not exceeding 70
square feet in size nor 10 feet in any dimension (e.g., animal shelters
and tool sheds); and
(f)
The construction of additions to existing buildings which do
not increase the first floor area by more than 20%, which are located
on the upstream or downstream side of the existing building, and which
do not extend beyond the sides of the existing building that are parallel
to the flow of floodwaters.
(3)
The total cumulative effect of the proposed development, when combined
with all other existing and anticipated development, will not increase
the base flood elevation more than 1.0 foot for the affected hydraulic
reach of the stream and will not increase flood damages or potential
flood damages.
C.
Public health standards in all SFHAs.
(1)
No development in the SFHA shall include locating or storing chemicals, explosives, buoyant materials, flammable liquids, pollutants or other hazardous or toxic materials below the FPE unless such materials are stored in a storage tank or floodproofed building constructed according to the requirements of § 170-7B(4).
(2)
New and replacement sanitary sewer lines and on-site waste disposal
systems may be permitted, provided all manholes or other aboveground
openings located below the FPE are watertight.
A.
In addition to the damage prevention requirements of § 170-6, all buildings to be located in the SFHA shall be protected from flood damage below the FPE. This building protection requirement applies to the following situations:
(1)
Construction or placement of a new building valued at more than $1,000;
(2)
Structural alterations made to an existing building that increase
the floor area by more than 20%, or the market value of the building
by more than 50%;
(3)
Reconstruction or repairs made to a damaged building that are valued
at or more than 50% of the market value of the building before the
damage occurred;
(4)
Installing a manufactured home on a new site or a new manufactured
home on an existing site. This chapter does not apply to returning
a manufactured home to the same site it lawfully occupied before it
was removed to avoid flood damage; and
(5)
Installing a travel trailer on a site for more than 180 days.
B.
This building protection requirement may be met by one of the following methods. The Building Official shall maintain a record of compliance with these building protection standards as required in § 170-3.
(1)
A residential or nonresidential building may be constructed on permanent
landfill in accordance with the following:
(a)
The fill shall be placed in layers no greater than one foot
deep before compaction.
(b)
The lowest floor (including basement) shall be at or above the
FPE. The fill should extend at least 10 feet beyond the foundation
of the building before sloping below the FPE.
(c)
The fill shall be protected against erosion and scour during
flooding by vegetative cover, rip rap, or bulkheading. If vegetative
cover is used, the slopes shall be no steeper than three horizontal
to one vertical.
(d)
The fill shall not adversely affect the flow of surface drainage
from or onto neighboring properties.
(2)
A residential or nonresidential building may be elevated in accordance
with the following:
(b)
The foundation and supporting members shall be anchored and
aligned in relation to flood flows and adjoining structures so as
to minimize exposure to known hydrodynamic forces such as current,
waves, ice and floating debris.
(c)
All areas below the FPE shall be constructed of materials resistant
to flood damage. The lowest floor (including basement) and all electrical,
heating, ventilating, plumbing and air conditioning equipment and
utility meters shall be located at or above the FPE. Water and sewer
pipes, electrical and telephone lines, submersible pumps, and other
waterproofed service facilities may be located below the FPE.
(3)
Manufactured homes and travel trailers to be installed on a site
for more than 180 days shall be:
(a)
Elevated at or above the FPE in accordance with Subsection (B)(1)
or (2) of this section; and
(b)
Anchored to resist flotation, collapse or lateral movement by
being tied down in accordance with the Rules and Regulations for the
Illinois Mobile Home Tie-Down Act issued pursuant to 210 ILCS 120/1
et seq.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
(4)
Only a nonresidential building may be floodproofed in accordance
with the following:
(a)
A registered professional engineer shall certify that the building
has been designed so that, below the FPE, the structure and attendant
utility facilities are watertight and capable of resisting the effects
of the base flood. The building design shall take into account flood
velocities, duration, rate of rise, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces,
the effects of buoyancy, and impacts from debris or ice.
(b)
Floodproofing measures shall be operable without human intervention
and without an outside source of electricity.
The City Council shall take into account flood hazards, to the
extent that they are known, in all official actions related to land
management, use and development.
A.
New subdivisions, manufactured home parks, annexation agreements, planned unit developments (PUDs) and additions to manufactured home parks and subdivisions shall meet the requirements of §§ 170-6 and 170-7. Plats or plans for new subdivisions, manufactured home parks, and planned unit developments (PUDs) shall include a signed statement by a registered professional engineer that the plat or plan accounts for changes in the drainage of surface waters in accordance with the Plat Act (765 ILCS 215/2).
B.
Proposals for new subdivisions, manufactured home parks, planned
unit developments (PUDs) and additions to manufactured home parks
and subdivisions shall include base flood elevation data. Where the
base flood elevation is not available from an existing study filed
with the Illinois State Water Survey, the applicant shall be responsible
for calculating the base flood elevation and submitting it to the
State Water Survey for review and approval as best available elevation
data.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
Whenever the standards of this chapter place undue hardship
on a specific development proposal, the applicant may apply to the
Building Official for a variance. The Building Official shall review
the applicant's request for a variance and shall submit its recommendation
to the City Council. The City Council may attach such conditions to
the granting of a variance as it deems necessary to further the intent
of this chapter.
A.
No variance shall be granted unless the applicant demonstrates that:
(1)
The development activity cannot be located outside the SFHA;
(2)
An exceptional hardship would result if the variance were not granted;
(3)
The relief requested is the minimum necessary;
(4)
There will be no additional threat to public health or safety or
creation of a nuisance;
(5)
There will be no additional public expense for flood protection,
rescue or relief operations, policing, or repairs to roads, utilities
or other public facilities; and
B.
The Building Official shall notify an applicant in writing that a variance from the requirements of § 170-7 that would lessen the degree of protection to a building will:
(1)
Result in increased premium rates for flood insurance up to amounts
that may be as high as $25 for $100 of insurance coverage;
(2)
Increase the risks to life and property; and
(3)
Require that the applicant proceed with knowledge of these risks
and that the applicant acknowledge in writing the assumption of the
risk and liability.
C.
Variances to the building protection requirements of § 170-7 requested in connection with the reconstruction, repair or alteration of a site or building included on the National Register of Historic Places or the Illinois Register of Historic Places may be granted using criteria more permissive than the requirements of Subsection A(1) through (5) of this section.
The degree of flood protection required by this chapter is considered
reasonable for regulatory purposes and is based on available information
derived from engineering and scientific methods of study. Larger floods
may occur or flood heights may be increased by man-made or natural
causes. This chapter does not imply that development either inside
or outside of the SFHA will be free from flooding or damage. This
chapter does not create liability on the part of the City or any officer
or employee thereof for any flood damage that results from reliance
on this chapter or any administrative decision made lawfully thereunder.
[Amended 4-20-2015 by Ord. No. 3180; at time of adoption of Code (see
Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I)]
Failure to obtain a permit for development in the SFHA or failure
to comply with the requirements of a permit or conditions of a variance
resolution shall be deemed to be a violation of this chapter. Upon
due investigation, the Building Official may determine that a violation
of the minimum standards of this chapter exist. The Building Official
shall notify the owner in writing of such violation.
A.
If such owner fails after 10 days' notice to correct the violation:
(1)
The City may make application to the Circuit Court for an injunction
requiring conformance with this chapter or make such other order as
the court deems necessary to secure compliance with the chapter.
(2)
Any person who violates this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof,
be fined not less than $100 nor more than $750.
(3)
A separate offense shall be deemed committed upon each day during
or on which a violation occurs or continues.
B.
The Building Official shall inform the owner that any such violation
is considered a willful act to increase flood damages and therefore
may cause coverage by a standard flood insurance policy to be suspended.
C.
Nothing herein shall prevent the City from taking such other lawful
action to prevent or remedy any violations. All costs connected therewith
shall accrue to the person or persons responsible.
