A. The purpose of these floodplain regulations is to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare, and to minimize losses due to flood conditions in the floodplain. These regulations have been established with the following purposes intended:
1. Protect human life and health;
2. Minimize expenditure of public money for costly flood control projects;
3. Minimize the need for rescue and relief efforts associated with flooding and generally undertaken at the expense of the general public;
4. Minimize prolonged business interruptions;
5. Minimize damage to public infrastructure and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets, and bridges located in the floodplain;
6. Help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of flood prone areas in such a manner as to minimize future flood blight areas; and
7. Ensure compliance with the minimum standards for the continued participation in the national flood insurance program for the benefit of the residents of the city.
B. Specifically it is the purpose of these regulations to:
1. Restrict or prohibit uses that are dangerous to health, safety, and property in times of flood, or that cause increased flood heights and velocities;
2. Require that uses of land vulnerable to floods, including public facilities, be developed and constructed to minimize flood damage;
3. Regulate the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers which are needed to accommodate floodwaters;
4. Regulate filling, grading, dredging, and other development which may increase flood damage;
5. Regulate the construction of flood barriers which will impact other property, floodwater depth, or velocity of floodwaters;
6. Distinguish between the regulations applicable to the floodway within the floodplain and those applicable to the floodway fringe;
7. Apply more restrictive regulations within the floodway; and
8. Ensure that regulations and minimum standards balance the greatest public good with the least private injury. (Ord. 249, 8-21-2012)