(A) The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a voluntary program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and county’s officials have elected to join the program, participate, and enforce the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance and the requirements and regulations of the NFIP. The National Flood Insurance Program, established in this chapter, provides that areas of the county having a special flood hazard be identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and that floodplain management measures be applied in such flood hazard areas. Furthermore, the county may elect to administer this chapter to areas not identified as special flood hazard areas (SFHAs) by FEMA on the community’s effective flood insurance rate map (FIRM), if the community has documentation to support that there is an inherent risk of flooding in such areas.
(B) The legislature of the state has, in SDCL § 11-2-13, delegated the authority to adopt regulations designed to minimize flood losses to local governmental units. Therefore, as a basis for adopting such regulations, the Board of County Commissioners does hereby make the following legislative findings of fact:
(1) The flood hazard areas of the county are subject to periodic inundation which results in the loss of life and property, the creation of health and safety hazards, the disruption of commerce and governmental services, and extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare.
(2) These flood losses are created by the cumulative effect of obstructions in floodplains, which cause an increase in flood heights and velocities, and by the occupancy of flood hazard areas by uses vulnerable to floods and hazardous to other lands because they are inadequately elevated, flood proofed, or otherwise protected from flood damage, and by uses deemed unsuitable for floodplain areas or that do not account for the increased flood risk.
(Ord. 2106-34, passed 6-22-2021)