§ 74-204. Permits required.

(a)

Permit required. Use of lands and buildings, and construction, reconstruction, repair, modification or demolition of any structure within all floodplains, including special flood hazard areas, shall require review and approval of a permit by the commissioner.

(b)

Flood study or field run survey required. The Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps, more particularly described in section 74-202, adopted by the city are used for general reference purposes only. A flood study or a field run survey may be required to determine the location and extent of the floodplain area on a specific parcel.

(i)

Flood study. In an unmapped floodplain or in a mapped floodplain where elevation has not been established, a flood study may be required in order to establish the base flood elevation. Such a flood study shall address, at a minimum, impact to upstream, downstream and adjacent properties, and the free flow of flood waters.

(ii)

Field run survey. In order to establish the horizontal extent of the vertical floodplain elevation, a field run survey may be required to establish the actual location of the limit when proposed development is proximate to the limits of a floodplain/floodway.

(iii)

A flood study or field run survey required under this subsection shall be certified by either a professional engineer or registered land surveyor.

(c)

Review and approval. Any proposal which includes any of the activities described in this article shall be submitted to the commissioner for review before any such activity is commenced. The commissioner may authorize the approval of any of such activities upon a finding, based on detailed plans and specifications submitted with the proposal, that the activity can be completed and occupied or used in full compliance with the requirements of this article. No part of any such activity shall be commenced before such permit approval has been issued and all other permits and licenses required by applicable law have been issued or obtained.

(d)

Permit revocation. The commissioner may recommend the revocation of any such permit when the commissioner determines the activity is not being accomplished, or that the land is not being used or occupied, as shown on the plans and specifications approved by the commissioner. A permit approval so revoked may be reinstated upon application by the holder under such rules and conditions as are established by the commissioner consistent with the requirements of this article and other applicable laws.

(e)

Protection of existing flood storage and from flooding. The commissioner shall not, by authorizing the approval of a permit under the authority of this article, authorize any use of land, any extension or enlargement of a use of land which existed before the original date of enactment of the provisions of said article, or the commencement of any of the activities described in this article, where the effect thereof would be to decrease the volume of existing flood storage on that land or to increase flooding conditions upstream, downstream or adjacent to that land.

(i)

Protection of floodways. The floodway shall be that as defined in the flood insurance study, City of Atlanta, Georgia, Fulton and DeKalb County, Federal Emergency Management Agency, revised June 22, 1998, and as it may be subsequently revised or extended. On those watercourses and rivers regulated hereunder where the floodway has not been defined in the said flood insurance study and until such time as these watercourses and rivers are defined in an officially adopted or revised flood insurance study, the floodway shall be defined as the channel of the watercourse or river and the adjacent areas of the defined or undefined floodplain that must be reserved in order to discharge the 100-year base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot upstream of, downstream of, or at the point being considered. No fill or encroachments shall be placed within the defined floodway that would impair the ability to carry and discharge the waters resulting from the 100-year base flood.

(ii)

Floodplain protection. The commissioner shall not authorize the approval of any permit authorizing the placement of fill or stored materials, or the construction of any building or other structure within the floodplain. Earth-disturbing activities in the floodplain shall be permitted only when the resulting configuration shall allow stormwater to enter the floodway by sheet flow (not channelized flow) and results in no loss of existing flood volume. Any earth-disturbing activities within a floodplain shall be subject to requirements of stream bank buffer limits and should be constructed using best management practices for soil erosion and sedimentation control. The use of compensating excavation or contouring; procedures to modify flood hazard limits may apply to install necessary public roadway and utilities within the flood limits to support existing and new property(s) which are not within the flood limits or to restore riparian buffer areas. Restoration of riparian buffer areas includes streambank stabilization projects that utilize natural channel design principles and the removal of a pipe or culvert to restore a stream channel with a minimum of a 25-foot vegetated buffer on each side of the channel.

All applications for permits issued by the commissioner which would allow any use or construction wholly or partly in a special flood hazard area shall include detailed plans and specifications which demonstrate that no expansion of a special flood hazard area would result from the work which would be authorized by any such permit. No such permit shall authorize any proposed use or construction which would have a finished elevation less than two feet higher than the nearest base flood elevation and that would be closer than 15 feet from the nearest base flood elevation, and no such permit shall be issued until the plans and specifications submitted are in compliance with this article and have been authorized by the commissioner. Any comments or requirements endorsed on such plans and specifications or on an addendum thereto, by the commissioner shall become a part of any permit issued for the work covered by the plans and specifications and shall be enforced as are all other requirements applicable to such permit.

(iii)

Reserved.

(iv)

Modification to existing structures or existing usages of the floodplain in violation of, but predating the provisions of this article. Minor modifications and routine maintenance of uses and structures which were lawful prior to the original date of enactment of the provisions of this article, including existing structures, fills, pavements, utilities, manufactured homes, mobile homes, mobile home sites and other facilities, shall be subject to the following restrictions:

(A)

Permitted modifications of existing structures or existing usage. Any modification to an existing usage, when such existing usage is in violation of this article, that enhances the protection of life or property or which is reasonably necessary to the maintenance and upkeep of the property concerned and which does not extend the scope and magnitude of the existing violation of these regulations, is permitted provided the value of such modification or maintenance does not exceed 50 percent of the value of the structure or total existing usage prior to such modification or maintenance, excluding the value of the land but including the value of existing structures, utility service connections, fills, pavements, slabs, mobile home sites and other facilities which can be reasonably demonstrated as an integral part of that existing usage.

(B)

Modifications requiring additional measures. Any improvement, modification or maintenance and any repairs or reconstruction required by any reason, including damages arising from normal deterioration, flood, other natural act or accident, of any existing usage where such existing usage is in violation of this article, shall bring that existing usage under the scope of the regulations set forth in this subsection; and that existing usage shall be brought into compliance with this article, providing that the total value of such improvement, modification, maintenance, repair or reconstruction exceeds 50 percent of the value of the structure or existing usage before such improvement, modification or maintenance or before such flood, other natural act or accident, excluding the value of the land but including the prior value of structures, utility service connections, fills, pavements, slabs, mobile home sites and other facilities which can be reasonably demonstrated as an integral part of the existing usage prior to the event.

(Ord. No. 2013-20(13-O-1021), § 4, 5-29-13; Ord. No. 2017-43(17-O-1393), § 1, 7-26-17 )