As used in this chapter:
(a) "Base flood" means the flood having a one percent probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The base flood is also known as the 100-year flood. The base flood elevation at any location is as defined in Section 1460.04.
(b) "Base flood elevation (BFE)" means the elevation in relation to mean sea level of the crest of the base flood.
(c) "Building" means a walled and roofed structure that is principally above ground including manufactured homes, prefabricated buildings and gas or liquid storage tanks. The term "building" also includes recreational vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site for more than one hundred eighty (180) days per year.
(d) "Critical facility" means any facility which is critical to the health and welfare of the population and, if flooded, would create an added dimension to the disaster. Damage to these critical facilities can impact the delivery of vital services, can cause greater damage to other sectors of the community, or can put special populations at risk.
Examples of critical facilities where flood protection should be required include: emergency services facilities (such as fire and police stations), schools, hospitals, retirement homes and senior care facilities, major roads and bridges, critical utility sites (telephone switching stations or electrical transformers, and hazardous material storage facilities (chemicals, petrochemicals, hazardous or toxic substances).
(e) "Development" means any man-made change to real estate, including, but not limited to:
(1) Demolition, construction, reconstruction, repair or placement of a new building or any structural alteration to a building;
(2) Substantial improvement of an existing building;
(3) Installation of 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 per year;
(4) Installation of utilities, construction of roads, bridges, culverts or similar projects;
(5) Construction or erection of levees, dams, walls, or fences;
(6) Drilling, mining, filling, dredging, grading, excavating, paving or other alterations of the ground surface;
(7) Storage of materials including the placement of gas and liquid storage tanks;
(8) Channel modifications; and
(9) Any other activity that might change the direction, height or velocity of flood or surface water.
The term "development" does not include routine maintenance of existing buildings and facilities, resurfacing roads, or gardening, plowing and similar practices that do not involve filling, grading or construction of levees.
(f) "Existing manufactured home park or subdivision" means 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 or buildings to be constructed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed before the effective date of the floodplain management regulations adopted by a community.
(g) "Expansion to an existing manufactured home park or subdivision" means 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).
(h) "FEMA" means the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
(i) "Flood" means a general and temporary condition of partial to complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow, the unusual and rapid accumulation or the run-off of surface waters from any source.
(j) "Flood fringe" means that portion of the floodplain outside of the regulatory floodway.
(k) "Flood Insurance Rate Map" means a map prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that depicts the floodplain or special flood hazard area (SFHA) within a community. This map includes insurance rate zones and may or may not depict floodways and show base flood elevations.
(l) "Flood Insurance Study" means an examination, evaluation and determination of flood hazards and, if appropriate, corresponding water surface elevations.
(m) "Floodplain" and "Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA)" are synonymous, and mean those lands within the jurisdiction of the City, the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City, or that may be annexed into the City, that are subject to inundation by the base flood. The floodplains of the Pecatonica River and Yellow Creek are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map prepared for Stephenson County by FEMA and dated March 16, 2015. The floodplains of those parts of unincorporated Stephenson County that are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City or that may be annexed into the City are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map prepared for Stephenson County by FEMA and dated March 16, 2015. Floodplain also includes those areas of known flooding as identified by the City.
(n) "Flood proofing" means any combination of structural or nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce or eliminate flood damage to real estate, property and their contents.
(o) "Flood proofing certificate" means a form published by FEMA that is used to certify that a building has been designed and constructed to be structurally dry flood proofed to the flood protection elevation.
(p) "Flood protection elevation" or "FPE" means the elevation of the base flood plus one foot of freeboard at any given location in the floodplain.
(q) "Floodway" means that portion of the floodplain required to store and convey the base flood. The floodway for the floodplains of the Pecatonica River shall be as delineated on the countywide Flood Insurance Rate Map of Stephenson County prepared by FEMA and dated March 16, 2015. The floodways for each of the remaining floodplains of the City shall be according to the best data available from Federal, State, or other sources.
(r) "FPE" or "flood protection elevation" means the elevation of the base flood plus one foot of freeboard at any given location in the floodplain.
(s) "Freeboard" means an increment of elevation added to the base flood elevation to provide a factor of safety for uncertainties in calculations, future watershed development, unknown localized conditions, wave actions and unpredictable effects such as those caused by ice or debris jams.
(t) "Historic structure" means any structure that is:
(1) 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;
(2) 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;
(3) Individually listed on the state inventory of historic places by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency; or
(4) Individually listed on a local inventory of historic places that has been certified by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
(u) "IDNR/OWR" means Illinois Department of Natural Resources/Office of Water Resources. IDNR/OWR Jurisdictional Stream-Illinois Department of Natural Resource Office of Water Resources has jurisdiction over any stream serving a tributary area of 640 acres or more in an urban area, or in the floodway of any stream serving a tributary area of 6,400 acres or more in a rural area. Construction on these streams requires a permit from the Department. (Ill. Admin. Code tit. 17, pt. 3700.30). The Department may grant approval for specific types of activities by issuance of a statewide permit which meets the standards defined in Section 1460.06.
(v) "Lowest floor" means the lowest floor or the lowest enclosed area (including basement). An unfinished or flood resistant enclosure, usable solely for parking of vehicles, building access or storage in an area other than a basement area is not considered a building's lowest floor, provided that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable non-elevation design requirements of Section 1460.07.
(w) "Manufactured home" means a structure transportable in one or more sections that is built on a permanent chassis and is designed to be used with or without a permanent foundation when connected to required utilities.
(x) "Manufactured home park or subdivision" means a parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two or more lots for rent or sale.
(y) "New construction" means structures for which the start of construction commenced on or after the effective date of floodplain management regulations adopted by a community and includes any subsequent improvements of such structures.
(z) "New manufactured home park or subdivision" means 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 or buildings to be constructed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after the effective date of the floodplain management regulations adopted by a community.
(aa) "NFIP" means National Flood Insurance Program.
(bb) "Repetitive loss" means flood-related damages sustained by a structure on two separate occasions during a ten year period for which the costs of repairs at the time of each such flood event on the average equals or exceeds twenty-five percent (25%) of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
(cc) "SFHA." See definition of floodplain.
(dd) "Start of construction" includes substantial improvement and means the date the building permit was issued. This, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition placement or other improvement, was within one hundred eighty (180) days of the permit date. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns or any work beyond the stage of excavation or placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. For a substantial improvement, actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor or other structural part of a building whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.
(ee) "Structure" (see "Building").
(ff) "Substantial damage" means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cumulative percent of damage during a ten (10) year period equals or exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred regardless of actual repair work performed. Volunteer labor and materials must be included in this determination. This term includes "repetitive loss buildings" (see definition).
(gg) "Substantial improvement" means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or improvement of a structure taking place during a ten (10) year period in which the cumulative percentage of improvements:
(1) equals or exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the market value of the structure before the improvement or repair is started, or
(2) increases the floor area by more than twenty percent (20%).
"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. This term includes structures which have incurred repetitive loss or substantial damage, regardless of the actual repair work done. The term does not include:
(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 structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the Illinois Register of Historic Places.
(hh) "Travel trailer" (or recreational vehicle) means a vehicle which is:
(1) built on a single chassis;
(2) four hundred (400) square feet or less in size;
(3) designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and
(4) designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use.
(ii) "Violation" means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with the community's floodplain management regulations. A structure or other development without the required federal, state, and/or local permits and elevation certification is presumed to be in violation until such time as the documentation is provided
(Ord. 2005-59. Passed 11-21-05; Ord. 2011-07. Passed 2-7-11; Ord. 2015-19. Passed 3-2-15.)