Chapter 28 - Special Flood Hazard Area Development Regulations
Division 2 - Definitions
SEC. 28.2. - DEFINITIONS. For the purposes of this ordinance, the following definitions are adopted:
- Base Flood. The flood having a one-percent probability
of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The base flood
is also known as the 100-year flood. The base flood elevation
at any location is as defined in SEC. 28.3 of this ordinance.
- Base Flood Elevation (BFE). The elevation in relation
to mean sea level of the crest of the base flood.
- Building. A structure that is principally above ground
and is enclosed by walls and a roof including manufactured homes
and prefabricated buildings. The term also includes recreational
vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site for more
than 180 days.
- Development. Any man-made change to real estate including,
but not necessarily limited to:
- construction, reconstruction, or placement of a building,
or any addition to a building, exceeding 70 square feet
in floor area;
- substantial improvement of an existing building;
- installation of a manufactured home on a site, preparing
a site for a manufactured home, or installing a travel trailer
on a site for more than 180 days;
- installation of utilities, construction of roads, bridges,
culverts or similar projects;
- construction or erection of levees, dams, walls, or
fences;
- drilling, mining, filling, dredging, grading, excavating,
paving, or other alterations of the ground surface;
- storage of materials including the placement of gas
and liquid storage tanks; and
- channel modifications or any other activity that might
change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface
waters.
"Development" does not include maintenance of existing buildings and facilities; resurfacing roads; or gardening, plowing, and similar practices that do not involve filling, grading, or construction of levees.
- construction, reconstruction, or placement of a building,
or any addition to a building, exceeding 70 square feet
in floor area;
- FEMA. Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- Flood. A general and temporary condition of partial
or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow,
the unusual and rapid accumulation, or the runoff of surface
waters from any source.
- Flood Fringe. That portion of the floodplain outside
of the regulatory floodway.
- Flood Insurance Rate Map. A map prepared by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency that depicts the floodplain or special
flood hazard area (SFHA) within a community. This map includes
insurance rate zones and may or may not depict floodways and
show base flood elevations.
- Floodplain and Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA)
are synonymous. Those lands within the jurisdiction of the Town
that are subject to inundation by the base flood. The floodplains
of the Town are generally identified as such on the Flood Insurance
Rate Map of McLean County, Illinois, and Incorporated Areas
prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated
February 9, 2001. The floodplains of those parts of unincorporated
McLean County that are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction
of the Town or that may be annexed into the Town are generally
identified as such on the Flood Insurance Rate Map prepared
for McLean County by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
and dated February 9, 2001.
- Floodproofing: Any combination of structural or nonstructural
additions, changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce
or eliminate flood damage to real estate, property and their
contents.
- Floodproofing Certificate: A form published by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency that is used to certify
that a building has been designed and constructed to be structurally
dry floodproofed to the flood protection elevation.
- Flood Protection Elevation or "FPE". The elevation
of the base flood plus one foot of freeboard at any given location
in the floodplain.
- Floodway. That portion of the floodplain required
to store and convey the base flood. The floodway for the floodplains
of Sugar Creek and Skunk Creek shall be as delineated on the
Flood Insurance Rate Map for McLean County, Illinois. and Incorporated
Areas prepared by FEMA and dated February 9, 2001. The floodways
for each of the remaining floodplains of the Town shall be according
to the best data available from Federal, State, or other sources.
- "IDNR/OWR". Illinois Department of Natural Resources/Office
of Water Resources.
- Manufactured Home. A structure transportable in one
or more sections, that is built on a permanent chassis and is
designed to be used with or without a permanent foundation when
connected to required utilities.
- "NFIP". National Flood Insurance Program.
- "SFHA". See definition of floodplain.
- Substantial Improvement. Any repair, reconstruction,
or improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds
50 percent of the market value of the structure either, (a)
before the improvement or repair is started, or (b) if the structure
has been damaged, and is being restored, before the damage occurred.
Substantial improvement is considered to occur when the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor, or other structural part of the building commences, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure. The term does not, however, include either (1) any project for improvement of a structure to comply with existing state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which are solely necessary to assure safe living conditions or (2) any alteration of a structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the Illinois Register of Historic Places.
- Travel Trailer (or Recreational Vehicle) A vehicle
which is:
- built on a single chassis;
- 400 square feet of less in size;
- designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable
by a light duty truck; and
- designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use.
- built on a single chassis;