The identified floodplain area shall consist of the following specific areas.
(A) Floodway area. The floodway area/district identified as floodway in the FIS which represents the channel of a watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation by more than one foot at any point. This term shall also include floodway areas which have been identified in other available studies or sources of information for those special floodplain areas where no floodway has been identified in the FIS.
(1) Within any floodway area, no encroachments, including fill, new construction, substantial improvements or other development shall be permitted unless it has been demonstrated through hydrologic and hydraulic analysis performed in accordance with standard engineering practice that the proposed encroachment would not result in any increase in flood levels within the community during the occurrence of the base flood discharge.
(2) No new construction or development shall be allowed, unless a permit is obtained from the Department of Environmental Protection Regional Office.
(B) AE area/district. The AE area/district without floodway shall be those areas identified as an AE Zone on the FIRM included in the FIS prepared by FEMA and for which base flood elevations have been provided in the FIS but no floodway has been delineated.
(1) In AE area/district without floodway, no new development shall be permitted unless it can be demonstrated that the cumulative effect of all past and projected development will not increase the BFE by more than one foot.
(2) No permit shall be granted for any construction, development, use or activity within any AE area/district without floodway unless it is demonstrated that the cumulative effect of the proposed development would not, together with all other existing and anticipated development, increase the BFE than one foot at any point.
(C) Community identified flood hazard areas. Community identified flood hazard areas shall be those areas where the borough has identified local flood hazard or ponding areas, as delineated and adopted on a local flood hazard map using best available topographic data and locally derived information such as flood of record, historic high water marks, soils or approximate study methodologies.
(D) Floodplain area.
(1) Description. The areas identified as Zone A in the FIS which are subject to inundation by the 1% annual chance flood event determined using approximate methodologies. The A area/district shall be those areas identified as an A Zone on the FIRM included in the FIS prepared by FEMA and for which no 1% annual chance flood elevations have been provided. For these areas, elevation and floodway information from other federal, state or other acceptable source shall be used when available. Because detailed hydraulic analyses have not been performed, no BFEs or flood depths are shown.
(2) Special requirements.
(a) No new construction or development shall be located within the area measured 50 feet landward from the top-of-bank of any watercourse, unless a permit is obtained from the Department of Environmental Protection Regional Office.
(b) When available, information from other federal, state and other acceptable sources shall be used to determine the BFE, as well as a floodway area, if possible. When no other information is available, the BFE shall be determined by using a point on the boundary of the identified floodplain area which is nearest the construction site in question.
(c) 1. Floodplains shall be calculated using the method established in Appendix IV, which is adopted by reference as if set out in full herein, and shown on all subdivision and land development plans, where applicable. The floodplain controls established within the borough zoning ordinance (as codified in Chapter 154 of this code of ordinances), as amended shall be applied to those floodplains.
2. When the applicant is required to determine the elevation with hydrologic and hydraulic engineering techniques, hydrologic and hydraulic analyses shall be undertaken only by professional engineers or others of demonstrated qualifications, who shall certify that the technical methods used correctly reflect currently accepted technical concepts. Studies, analyses, computations and the like shall be submitted in sufficient detail to allow a thorough technical review by the borough.
(E) Shallow flooding area.
(1) Description. The areas identified as Zones AO and AH in the FIS. These areas are subject to inundation by 1% annual chance shallow flooding where average depths are between one and three feet.
(2) Special requirements. Establish drainage paths to guide floodwaters around and away from structures on slopes.
(Ord. 2012-1, passed 6-11-2012)