Fayette Floodway ordinance (§ 420.160)

Located within areas of special flood hazard established in Article II, Section 420.030 are areas designated as floodways. Since the floodway is an extremely hazardous area due to the velocity of floodwaters that carry debris and potential projectiles, the following provisions shall apply:

A. The community shall select and adopt a regulatory floodway based on the principle that the area chosen for the regulatory floodway must be designed to carry the waters of the base flood without increasing the water surface elevation of that flood by more than one (1) foot at any point.

B. Any encroachments, including fill, new construction, substantial improvements, and other development within the adopted regulatory floodway are prohibited unless it has been demonstrated through hydrologic and hydraulic analyses 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.

C. Encroachments within the adopted regulatory floodway that would result in an increase in base flood elevations may be permitted, provided that the City first applies for a conditional FIRM and floodway revision, fulfills the requirements of such revisions as established under the provisions of 44 CFR § 65.12, and receives the approval of FEMA.

D. In unnumbered A Zones, the community shall obtain, review, and reasonably utilize any base flood elevation or floodway data currently available from Federal, State, or other sources as set forth in Article IV, Section 420.130(B).