Does the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have restrictions for building in a floodplain?
For communities participating in the National Flood Insurance Program, building, or the availability of insurance, is regulated based on the risk of flooding within different areas. What about a low-lying area that floods, but isn’t a part of the floodplain? Floodplains are not calculated for other disconnected, low-lying areas – even though a disconnected, low-lying area may flood prior to, more than or after a floodplain. What can a community do to prevent houses from being rebuilt in a low-lying area or floodplain? Within a floodplain, if a community is part of the FEMA flood insurance rate program, then the city has to have adopted a floodplain management ordinance — a zoning ordinance that limits the types of structures that can be built and the placement of those structures. FEMA gives the states some latitude in the types of floodplain regulations they can adopt. FEMA sets a minimum standard designed to protect the structure within the floodplain and establishes a base elevation
