13-1-2: DEFINITIONS:

For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions are adopted:

ACT: "An act in relation to the regulation of the rivers, lakes and streams of the state of Illinois", 615 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5/5 et seq.

APPLICANT: Any person, firm, corporation or agency which submits an application.

APPROPRIATE USE: Only uses of the designated floodway that are permissible and will be considered for permit issuance. The only uses that will be allowed are as specified in subsection 13-1-7(B) of this chapter.

BASE FLOOD: The flood having a one percent (1%) probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The base flood is also known as the 100-year frequency flood event. Application of the base flood elevation at any location is as defined in section 13-1-5 of this chapter.

BUILDING: A structure that is principally aboveground and is enclosed by walls and a roof. The term includes a gas or liquid storage tank, a manufactured home, mobile home or a prefabricated building. This term also includes recreational vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site for more than one hundred eighty (180) days, unless fully licensed and ready for highway use.

COMPENSATORY STORAGE: An artificially excavated, hydraulically equivalent volume of storage within the SFHA used to balance the loss of natural flood storage capacity when artificial fill or structures are placed within the floodplain. The uncompensated loss of natural floodplain storage can increase off site floodwater elevations and flows.

CONDITIONAL APPROVAL OF A DESIGNATED FLOODWAY MAP CHANGE: Preconstruction approval by IDNR/OWR and FEMA of a proposed change to the floodway map. This preconstruction approval, pursuant to this chapter, gives assurances to the property owner that once an appropriate use is constructed according to permitted plans, the floodway map can be changed, as previously agreed, upon review and acceptance of as built plans.

CONDITIONAL LETTER OF MAP REVISION (CLOMR): A letter which indicates that FEMA will revise base flood elevations, flood insurance rate zones, flood boundaries or floodway as shown on an effective flood hazard boundary map or flood insurance rate map, once the as built plans are submitted and approved.

DAM: All obstructions, wall embankments or barriers, together with their abutments and appurtenant works, if any, constructed for the purpose of storing or diverting water or creating a pool. Underground water storage tanks are not included.

DESIGNATED FLOODWAY: The channel, including on stream lakes, and that portion of the floodplain adjacent to a stream or watercourse as designated by IDNR/OWR, which is needed to store and convey the existing 100-year frequency flood discharge with no more than a 0.1 foot increase in stage due to the loss of flood conveyance or storage, and no more than a ten percent (10%) increase in velocities.

   (A)   The floodways are designated for 71st Street ditch, Des Plaines River, sanitary drainage and ship canal, Illinois and Michigan Canal on the following map number 17031C and panels 0487, 0488, 0495, 0515 and 606 dated August 19, 2008, of the countywide flood insurance rate map for Cook County prepared by FEMA.

   (B)   The floodways for those parts of unincorporated Cook County that are within the one and one-half (11/2) mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of the village that may be annexed into the village are designated for 71st Street ditch, Des Plaines River, sanitary drainage and ship canal, Illinois and Michigan Canal on the following map number 17031C and panels 0487, 0488, 0495, 0515 and 606 dated August 19, 2008, of the countywide flood insurance rate map for Cook County prepared by FEMA.

   (C)   To locate the designated floodway boundary on any site, the designated floodway boundary should be scaled off the designated floodway map and located on a site plan, using reference marks common to both maps. Where interpretation is needed to determine the exact location of the designated floodway boundary, IDNR/OWR should be contacted for the interpretation.

DEVELOPMENT: Any manmade change to real estate, including:

   (A)   Construction, reconstruction, repair, or placement of a building or any addition to a building.

   (B)   Installing a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for a manufactured home, or installing a travel trailer or recreational vehicle on a site for more than one hundred eighty (180) days. If the travel trailer or recreational vehicle is on site for less than one hundred eighty (180) days, it must be fully licensed and ready for highway use.

   (C)   Drilling, mining, installing utilities, construction of roads, bridges, or similar projects.

   (D)   Construction or erection of levees, walls, fences, dams, or culverts; channel modification; filling, dredging, grading, excavating, paving, or other nonagricultural alterations of the ground surface; storage of materials; deposit of solid or liquid waste.

   (E)   Any other activity of man that might change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface water, including extensive vegetation removal.

Development does not include maintenance of existing buildings and facilities such as reroofing or resurfacing of roads when there is no increase in elevation, or gardening, plowing, and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling, grading, or construction of levees.

ELEVATION CERTIFICATES: A form published by FEMA that is used to certify the elevation to which a building has been elevated.

EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS: Organizations which are exempt from this chapter per Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) including state, federal or local units of government.

EXISTING MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION: A manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) has been completed before April 1, 1990.

EXPANSION TO AN EXISTING MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION: The preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads).

FEMA: Federal emergency management agency and its regulations at 44 CFR 59-79 effective as of October 1, 1999. This incorporation does not include any later editions or amendments.

FLOOD: A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from overflow of inland or tidal waves, or the unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source.

FLOOD FRINGE: That portion of the floodplain outside of the designated floodway.

FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAPS (FIRM): A map prepared by FEMA that depicts the special flood hazard area (SFHA) within a community. This map includes insurance rate zones and floodplains and may or may not depict floodways.

FLOOD PROTECTION ELEVATION (FPE): The elevation of the base flood or 100-year frequency flood at any given location in the SFHA.

FLOODPLAIN: That land typically adjacent to a body of water with ground surface elevations at or below the base flood or the 100-year frequency flood elevation. Floodplains may also include detached special flood hazard areas, ponding areas, etc. The floodplain is also known as the special flood hazard area (SFHA).

   (A)   The floodplains are those lands within the jurisdiction of the village that are subject to inundation by the base flood or 100-year frequency flood. The SFHAs of the village are generally identified as such on the following map number 17031C and panels 0487, 0488, 0495, 0515 and 606 dated August 19, 2008, of the countywide flood insurance rate map for Cook County prepared by FEMA.

   (B)   The SFHAs of those parts of unincorporated Cook County that are within the one and one-half (11/2) mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of the village or that may be annexed into the village are designated for 71st Street ditch, Des Plaines River, sanitary drainage and ship canal, Illinois and Michigan Canal on the following map number 17031C and panels 0487, 0488, 0495, 0515 and 606 dated August 19, 2008, of the countywide flood insurance rate map for Cook County prepared by FEMA.

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.

FLOODPROOFING CERTIFICATE: A form published by FEMA that is used to certify that a building has been designed and constructed to be structurally dry floodproofed to the flood protection elevation.

FREEBOARD: An increment of elevation added to the base flood elevation to provide a factor of safety for uncertainties in calculations, unknown localized conditions, wave actions and unpredictable effects such as those caused by ice or debris jams.

HISTORIC STRUCTURE: Any structure that is:

   (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 historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the secretary to qualify as a registered historic district;

   (C)   Individually listed on the state inventory of historic places by the Illinois historic preservation agency;

   (D)   Individually listed on a local inventory of historic places that has been certified by the Illinois historic preservation agency.

HYDROLOGIC AND HYDRAULIC CALCULATIONS: Engineering analysis which determine expected flood flows and flood elevations based on land characteristics and rainfall events.

IDNR/OWR: Illinois department of natural resources, office of water resources.

LETTER OF MAP AMENDMENT (LOMA): Official determination by FEMA that a specific structure is not in a 100-year flood zone; amends the effective flood hazard boundary map (FHBM) or FIRM.

LETTER OF MAP REVISION (LOMR): Letter that revises base flood or 100-year frequency flood elevations, flood insurance rate zones, flood boundaries or floodways as shown on an effective FHBM or FIRM.

MANUFACTURED HOME: A structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designated for use with or without a permanent foundation when attached to the required utilities. The term manufactured homes also includes park trailers, travel trailers and other similar vehicles placed on site for more than one hundred eighty (180) consecutive days. The term "manufactured home" does not include a "recreational vehicle".

MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION: A parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two (2) or more manufactured home lots for rent or sale.

MITIGATION: Includes those measures necessary to minimize the negative effects which floodplain development activities might have on the public health, safety and welfare. Examples of mitigation include compensatory storage, soil erosion and sedimentation control, and channel restoration. Mitigation may also include those activities taken to reduce a structure's susceptibility to flooding.

NGVD: National geodetic vertical datum of 1929. Reference surface set by the national geodetic survey deduced from a continental adjustment of all existing adjustments in 1929.

NEW MANUFACTURED HOME PARK OR SUBDIVISION: Manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) has been completed on or after April 1, 1990.

PUBLIC BODIES OF WATERS: All open public streams and lakes capable of being navigated by watercraft, in whole or in part, for commercial uses and purposes, and all lakes, rivers, and streams which in their natural condition were capable of being improved and made navigable, or that are connected with or discharge their waters into navigable lakes or rivers within, or upon the borders of the state of Illinois, together with all bayous, sloughs, backwaters, and submerged lands that are open to the main channel or body of water directly accessible thereto.

PUBLIC FLOOD CONTROL PROJECT: A flood control project which will be operated and maintained by a public agency to reduce flood damages to existing buildings and structures which includes a hydrologic and hydraulic study of the existing and proposed conditions of the watershed. Nothing in this definition shall preclude the design, engineering, construction or financing, in whole or in part, of a flood control project by persons or parties who are not public agencies.

RECREATIONAL VEHICLE OR TRAVEL TRAILER: A vehicle which is:

   (A)   Built on a single chassis;

   (B)   Four hundred (400) square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projection;

   (C)   Designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and

   (D)   Designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use.

REGISTERED LAND SURVEYOR: A land surveyor registered in the state of Illinois, under the Illinois land surveyors act 1 .

REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER: An engineer registered in the state of Illinois, under the Illinois professional engineering practice act 2 .

REPAIR, REMODELING OR MAINTENANCE: Development activities which do not result in any increases in the outside dimensions of a building or any changes to the dimensions of a structure.

RIVERINE SFHA: Any SFHA subject to flooding from a river, creek, intermittent stream, ditch, on stream lake system or any other identified channel. This term does not include areas subject to flooding from lakes, ponding areas, areas of sheet flow, or other areas not subject to over bank flooding.

SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREA (SFHA): Any base flood area subject to flooding from a river, creek, intermittent stream, ditch, or any other identified channel or ponding and shown on a flood hazard boundary map or flood insurance rate map as zone A, AO, A1-30, AE, A99, AH, VO, V30, VE, V, M, E, D, or X.

STRUCTURE: The results of a manmade change to the land constructed on or below the ground, including the construction, reconstruction or placement of a building or any addition to a building; 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 one hundred eighty (180) days unless they are fully licensed and ready for highway use.

SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE: A building is considered substantially damaged when it sustains damage from any cause (fire, flood, earthquake, etc.), whereby the cost of fully restoring the structure would equal or exceed fifty percent (50%) of the predamage market value of the structure, regardless of the actual repair work performed.

SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT: (A) Any repair, reconstruction or improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the market value of the structure either: 1) before the improvement or repair is started, or 2) if the structure has been damaged, and is being restored, before the damage occurred.

   (B)   For the 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 building commences, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure regardless of the actual work performed.

   (C)   The term does not however, include either: 1) any project for improvement of a structure to comply with existing state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which are solely necessary to assure safe living conditions, or 2) any alteration of a "historic structure", provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation as a historic structure.

TRANSITION SECTION: Reaches of the stream or floodway where water flows from a narrow cross section to a wide cross section or vice versa. (Ord. 00-1075, 12-21-2000; amd. Ord. 08-1269, 7-14-2008)

 

Notes

1	1. 225 ILCS 330/1 et seq.
2	1. 225 ILCS 325/1 et seq.