Garages and Floodplain Ordinance Requirements – by Stormblog51
Filed in Floodplains |
Our community has a large number of single family nomes in the floodplain. Most of these homes were built before 1970, and are small by today’s standards. Some have old garages which are in poor condition and need to be replaced, and some have no garage at all. Residents have not been able to build garages because the current ordinance requires the garage floor to be elevated to the flood elevation plus 1 foot, which is then impossible to get a car into. FEMA and the State of Illinois allow garages to be built at grade, as long as building materials are waterproof and there are flood vents. A 2 car garage would need 2 flood vents with openings roughly 12″ x 12″ in size. Residents may be in the floodplain, but they still would like and NEED a place to park their cars and store things like kids’ bikes and toys, lawn care equipment, tools, etc. People who don’t have a garage still own these things, and now they are stored outside. The items will be damaged either way in a flood, but in the flood vented garage the items are contained instead of floating loose down the stream in a flood. Concerns have been voiced that owners of a flood vented garage would close up the openings. This can be dealt with by requiring periodic inspections and issuing citations if necessary. It’s unfair to property owners to prohibit these structures because a few owners may block the vents. Please consider allowing flood vented garages (and sheds) in the floodplain in the revised ordinance. This would also serve to encourage owners to invest in replacing old, small homes in poor condition with modernized, elevated, protected structures–a benefit to the property owner and the community.
Tuesday, July 20th 2010 at 12:42 pm |
We re-read the current ordinance and there seems to be confusion on the interpretation of what constitute a useable space and the lowest floor. The definition of a useable space includes “storage, etc.” and must be elevated to 1-foot above the base flood elevation (BFE) and the lowest floor definition also includes “storage and parking of vehicles, etc” and is not considered the lowest floor. These definitions are very conflicting. A garage is considered elevated if it conforms to sub-section 16 of Section 15-133. Since according to the lowest floor definition, a garage floor is not considered as the lowest floor of the useable space or building so therefore it can be below the BFE as long as it confroms with sub-section 16 of Section 15-133. It is believed this was always the intent of the FEMA regulations to make these buildings compliant, however, there’s a limit to the size and value of the building (e.g., 500 sf and $8,000). Recall also that the ordinance was amended in 2006 to make it compliant with the requirements of FEMA and the NFIP.