This Chapter is enacted to promote public health and safety by prohibiting the use of areas of special flood hazard in ways that are dangerous because of foreseeable water hazards or because such use will result in a damaging increase in the height or velocity of floodwaters. These regulations are intended to:
(a) Minimize the frequency and height of floods by regulating the alteration of floodplains, stream channels and protective barriers that naturally accommodate or channel floodwaters and the construction of barriers that unnaturally divert or impede the flow of floodwaters;
(b) Protect life and safety by limiting the occupancy of lands that are subject to frequent inundation by floodwater;
(c) Protect public health by minimizing the need to locate water distribution and sewage collection facilities in areas of special flood hazard and by requiring water and sewage facilities in floodprone areas to be equipped with safeguards to prevent contamination of drinking water supplies by floodwater and contamination of floodwaters by industrial or septic wastes;
(d) Protect public safety by prohibiting the construction of structures that could collapse, be carried away or release toxic or flammable materials if inundated with floodwater;
(e) Minimize public expenditures by reducing the need for flood control projects, repair of public facilities. emergency rescue services and humanitarian relief efforts occasioned by imprudent occupation of flood prone lands;
(f) Preserve a stable tax base by avoiding prolonged business interruptions and by encouraging the use of floodprone lands in ways that discourage development of flood blighted areas;
(g) Ensure that those who occupy the areas of special flood hazard assume responsibility for their actions;
(h) Minimize the impact of development on adjacent properties within and near floodprone areas;
(i) Ensure that the flood storage and conveyance functions of the floodplain are maintained:
(j) Minimize the impact of development on the natural, beneficial values of the floodplain:
(k) Prevent floodplain uses that are either hazardous or environmentally incompatible: and,
(l) Meet community participation requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program.
(Ord. 8289. Passed 3-2-21.)