As Council will recall, the City participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and participates in the NFIP’s Community Rating System (CRS), a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum program requirements. Currently, the City has achieved a CRS rating of Class 7, making citizens who purchase NFIP flood insurance policies eligible for premium discounts. In 2020, the NFIP Community Rating System established certain minimum prerequisites for communities to qualify for or maintain class ratings of Class 8 or better. In order for the City to satisfy the prerequisite and for maintain its current CRS rating, all manufactured homes installed or replaced in special flood hazard areas must be elevated to or above at least the base flood elevation plus 1 foot, which necessitates modification of the existing requirements.
Chapter 553, Florida Statutes, allows for local administrative and technical amendments to the Florida Building Code that provide for more stringent requirements than those specified in the Code and allows adoption of local administrative and local technical amendments to the Florida Building Code to implement the National Flood Insurance Program and incentives. Therefore, it is the request of staff that City Council adopt a local amendment to the Florida Building Code to require foundations for one-family and two-family dwellings in flood hazard areas to be designed by registered design professionals.
The Land Development Review Board discussed this item at their meeting on June 27, 2024 and unanimously recommended approval.