Floodplain regulations are essential elements of public safety and community resilience. Floodplain regulations are also a complex web of technical standards and inter-governmental coordination. As communities seek to recover after a flood and as communities seek to plan for future floods, many questions arise. A new FAQ resource seeks to answer some of those questions.

The resource, Frequently Asked Questions about Local Floodplain Regulations in North Carolina, is intended as a brief guide to key questions about the authority and standards of local floodplain regulations, as well as considerations for rebuilding after a flood. This resource is intended to help public officials understand the basics of local floodplain regulations.

Among other things, the FAQ resources addresses the following:

• Who adopts and enforces floodplain regulations? What’s the federal role? The state role? And the local role?
• Can a local government relax floodplain regulations? Can a local government make regulations more strict?
• Are there special rules for special uses? Are residential uses treated differently? Are high impact uses (like landfills and chemical storage) limited in the floodplain?
• Following a flood, what are the options for temporary actions? Following a flood, what are the regulatory steps to rebuild? What are the options to minimize future losses?

You can find the NC Floodplain FAQs as well as many other recovery resources on the School of Government’s Hurricane Helene Resources webpage.