(A) Statutory authorization.
(1) The Legislature of the State has in SDCL Chapter 11-4 delegated the responsibility to local governmental units to adopt land use regulations designed to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare of its citizenry through floodplain and land use regulation. Therefore, the City Council ordains as follows:
(2) The city elects to comply with the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (Pub. L. No. 90-488, as amended). 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 the city’s community officials have elected to join the program, participate, and enforce these flood damage prevention regulations 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) Findings of fact.
(1) The flood hazard areas of the city are subject to periodic inundation which results in loss of life and property, health and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the inhabitants of the city.
(2) These potential flood losses are caused by:
(a) The cumulative effect of obstructions in floodplains which cause an increase in flood heights and velocities;
(b) The occupancy of flood hazards areas by uses vulnerable to floods and hazardous to other lands because they are inadequately elevated, floodproofed, or otherwise protected from flood damage; and
(c) Uses deemed unsuitable for floodplain areas or that do not account for the increased flood risk.
(C) Statement of purpose. It is the purpose of this chapter to promote the public health safety, and general welfare, and to minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions to specific areas by provisions designed:
(1) To protect human life and health;
(2) To minimize expenditure of public expenditures flood control projects;
(3) To minimize the need for rescue and relief efforts associated with flooding and generally undertaken at the expense of the general public;
(4) To minimize prolonged business interruptions caused by flooding;
(5) To minimize damage to public facilities and utilities such as water and gas mains, electric, telephone and sewer lines, streets, and bridges located in areas of special flood hazard;
(6) To help maintain a stable tax base by providing for the sound use and development of areas of special flood hazard so as to minimize future flood blight areas; and
(7) To ensure that potential buyers are notified that property is in an area of special flood hazard.
(D) Methods of reducing flood losses. In order to accomplish its purpose, this chapter includes methods and provisions for:
(1) Restricting or prohibiting uses which are dangerous to health, safety, and property due to water or erosion hazards, or which result in times of flooding, or cause excessive increases in flood heights or velocities;
(2) Requiring that uses vulnerable to floods, including facilities which serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction;
(3) Controlling the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers, which are involved in the accommodation of floodwaters;
(4) Controlling filling, grading, dredging, and other development which may increase flood damage; and
(5) Preventing or regulating the construction of flood barriers which will unnaturally divert floodwaters, or which may increase flood hazards in other areas.
(Ord. 682, passed - -2001; Ord. 759, passed - -2009; Ord. 842, passed 3-14-2022)