Floodplain Regulations and the National Flood Insurance Program

 
The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 allows the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) to make flood insurance available only to communities that have adopted flood damage prevention regulations.  Without community oversight of building activities in the floodplains, existing buildings and developments in the floodplain could be further undermined by the careless building of other buildings and developments.  Unless the community as a whole practices adequate flood hazard mitigation, the potential flood loses will not be reduced sufficiently to affect disaster relief costs.  Insurance costs would likely rise reflecting the probable higher flood loses that would result without the enforcement of flood damage prevention regulations. 

 Lancaster City Council adopted floodplain regulations with passage of the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance, Chapter 1331 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Lancaster, Ohio, in 1979 that became effective in 1980.  The ordinance was revised in 2011 as part of the Flood Map Modernization program.

 Under Chapter 1331, City Council has established the Certified Building Department as the Administrator of the floodplain regulations.  They are responsible for all aspects of the Development Permit Process and for maintaining the required National Flood Insurance Program information.