Two Metro Council members are proposing a change to the city-parish rules for building in floodplains that would require developers to plan their projects for more severe storms.
Dwight Hudson, who is introducing the measure with Erika Green, says the proposal is a “common-sense” update to the Unified Development Code, which has been the subject of scrutiny following last year’s flood. Planners are currently reviewing chapter 15 of the UDC, which deals with floodplains.
Currently, developers must submit a plan for stormwater management that includes on-site drainage structures that can handle 10-year storm events, or a storm that has a 10% chance of occurring in a given year.
Hudson and Green’s measure would bump that rule up to 25-year storms, which would require developers to plan for weather events that have a 4% chance of happening in a given year. The proposal would also not only require developers to have no net impact on floodplain storage—which is the current rule—but would require them to actually increase the storage capacity by 10% when they develop in floodplains.
“We’re kind of fast-tracking some of the changes to the (UDC),” Green says. “It also makes sure we’re being proactive on the issues pertaining to floodplains.”
Many other municipalities already implement the stricter requirements, Hudson says, and the development community is familiar with the idea. The idea surfaced in the first meeting between city-parish planners and several people in the real estate community, Hudson says, so developers should be familiar with it.
Planning Director Frank Duke says other cities he’s worked in have had 25-year storm requirements. The rule applies to certain developments like subdivisions and site plans, he says, and the increased requirement would likely mean developers would need to use more land for drainage.
—Sam Karlin
