Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Um, this is a call to order for the Bunkham County Planning Board on December the 15th, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. And we'll begin uh with a few announcements. Today we will have one opportunity for public comment which will be at our general public comment period after the approval of the minutes. And this comment period is for anyone wishing to bring any issue to the board's attention. If you wish to speak during this time, please be sure you have signed up on the signup sheet which are by the door just for this purpose and each person will have three minutes to speak. And um that's all the announcements I have. Are there any announcements from the staff? Okay, then we'll move on to the roll call of board members and we'll begin on the end of the row to my right.

Ken Con, Nancy Waldrup, Tim Collins, Alan Carson. Okay. And now we'll have um a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Then a motion passes. And next we need to approve the amendments from the November 17th um board meeting. So move second. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Uh then that passes as well. Yes. Oh yes.

No. Uh nobody could actually determine who made those motions. So, so with that in mind, I feel like we need to change minutes and not just say blank highlighted. Okay. So, how do we do that at this point? Just insert names. I think we should do that. And if not, just so it doesn't say blank highlighting and I'm not critiquing it. I'm just saying you did that by design. We got this conversation to see if you all okay looking at the minutes there's three blanks right

so just say the motion was seconded and then pass unanimously anonymous there's two at the I think the motion to work that way. So I make a motion to reflect the two spaces that are second. So you already had a motion from Allen. Would that be a friendly amendment? Allen's motion to approve the minutes as we also voted. So [laughter]

how about um I can withdraw my voted. So I would say then I would my motion say would like to move be approved. I'd like to move to amend minutes to insert generic language sections that are highlighted listed as blank. That would be okay. That's a new motion. So, okay, I would second that.

All in favor of the new motion made by John say I. I. Any opposed? Didn't we have that motion passed and the situation remedied? Thank you. Okay. Um, anything else? Before we move on, um then it's time for our general public comment period. Um do we have any speakers signed up to speak today? Okay, very good. Then let me just go over briefly um the rules for the public comment. Um when going to the podium, please state your name and the general area where you live. and your time shall uh there will be a time limit of 3 minutes unless um there's a group which I don't think there is today so that won't apply and each speaker during the public comment period shall be limited to one appearance at each regular meeting of the board. The board is not expected to comment on matters brought to the board during public comment. Any individual speaking during public comment shall only address the entire board and any polling of the board is inappropriate for public comment. Persons addressing the board are expected to observe the decorum of the chamber to be respectful to the board and the public. Um, and I think that's the ones we need. Um, Miss Styles, do you want to start?

Uh, my name is Dei Styles and I live in Swan, Noah. Um, so I read this over um yesterday on the computer and one of the things that I would like to ask about is or comment on is on section B findings of fact under number two where it talks about flood losses are caused by the cumulative cumulative effect of obstructions in the flood plane causing increase in flood heights and velocities. And I would like to point out that no place in the in this sentence or this part of finding a facts does it refer to the fact that a lot of the increase in flood heights and velocity is caused by runoff from um pavement and imperous surface particularly from steep slopes. So, I don't see how you're going to address the flood problem in the flood plane if you don't address the problems of where the water comes from. The water doesn't just appear in the river. It comes from the streams and the creeks that are up in the mountains. If you don't address that problem, you're then how are you going to address the problems with the flood? I understand about flood planes and construction in the flood planes and how that's an issue but you also need to address the problem of where the water comes from. The next thing is section C statement of purpose. In number one, it also says increase it in uh restrict or prohibit uses that are

dangerous to health, safety and property due to water or erosion hazards or that result in damaging increase in erosion and flood heights or velocities. And there again, we're talking about a result that comes from how much water comes down out of the mountains. And the more imperous surface that you put on the steep slopes, the more water is going to come down to the river. The other thing is there's a place in here where they talk about obstructions in the in the waterway which the river and this this thing is already in effect. This is not the new stuff that you're going to propose. This is what's in effect now. And in Swanoa, somebody has built out into the river and banked it up with pieces of old sidewalk or whatever uh masonry they could find and it's been there for over a month and it's obstructing that side of the river and nothing happens. it isn't going to you can make all the ordinances you want to, but if they're not enforced, it doesn't make any difference. That's also true about um uh erosion control. The county needs more erosion control officers so that they can make sure that the rules that they have are being followed.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss D.

And uh do we have someone else? Go ahead, please. And just tell us your name in the general area where you live, please. Early morning. My name is Jeffrey Dector. I live in Swanoa within three miles of the town of Swanoa. Uh I have three comments not concerning flooding but other issues that I thought about after was a workshop at the middle school. Uh one is street lighting and other one is resilience and community businesses and the other one is multi-use buildings in Swano. Uh Swano needs street lights in town and at major intersection. Old route 70 is the main artery for residents of Gromont Bree Road Allen Compost for Hills Lauren Wilson College campus and Lake Eden Road. In addition, a new emergency medical service is being built on Old Rock 70 next to the middle school. Each of these affect traffic on the road and at nighttime it's worse because if you can't see what's going on and people are walking on the road, you need to see what's you need to see. There's a lot. Has the traffic been measured on the road? Resilience in community businesses. Accessibility is necessary to ensure the resilience of swano businesses. Inadequate parking and lighting doomed the commercial establishments after the beacon factory deploys. To succeed, businesses need the patronage of area residents. Most local residents would drive to the town to for businesses to use them. The safety of residents would be enhanced with distributed public parking and well-lit sidewalks.

There are several areas where parking lots could be established. Next, last one is multi-use buildings in Swarm. I attended the workshop by the planning commission middle school last week. Does the county intend to encourage multi-use buildings? That was not apparent at the workshop at the middle school. It did not appear to include structures where a residence was located above a commercial establishment. Such structures would provide clientele for local businesses and make more efficient use of available land. There could be more than one resident above a business. An arrangement like this should allow for more affordable housing.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Okay. Any other public comment this morning? Then very good. Then we can close the public comment period and we do appreciate those comments. Um, and we'll move on to our review of ZPH 2025-000042, which is the flood flood ordinance revisions.

Morning. U, I want to introduce this before Angela Lee, the flood plan administrator, does our presentation just for a little bit of context. Um, the current flood ordinance is what you were what we're looking at now, what we have printed out here. Uh it's been in place since uh 2009. That was our last mapping cycle and we're speaking to special flood hazard areas. Um it is an ordinance that's based on a uh state model ordinance. It also contains higher standards. So it contains higher standards than many other local jurisdictions. Um but we have found some areas that we'd like to present to you where we think we can make some further improvements. We learned quite a bit from Ben. Uh, a lot of it we knew before and we were going [clears throat] to bring to you anyway before the storm happened. Um, this is the first step in a series of eventually joining what's called the community rating system and Angela will go into more detail about what that looks like. So this is a stairstepped approach to the most critical life safety fixes that we feel like need to be addressed first and then eventually as we continue to bring on more staff because community rating system will be a heavy lift. Ken your community uh Woodford I believe is joining the community rating system. That's one of their goals. City of Asheville's the community rating system. Um, so we're going to be following suit as well. For those that are listening, what that means is to adopt higher standards, it translates into um policy discounts for flood [clears throat] insurance holders across the county. So that being said, I'm going to turn it over to Angela and let her run through the presentation. Today is just a discussion, so we'll follow through with

the other steps in the next couple months. We're trying to get the view options better. You'll give us just one minute.

There you go. Was big for a second. Thank you.

It's going be a little small, so we'll just There it is. That be a little bit better than the last one.

Good morning. My name is Angela Lee. I'm the flood plane administrator for county. Um, I've been with the planning department since 2020. Um, I started out with the erosion control department and then moved as the flood plan administrator as of May 2023. Um, this is in regards to ZPH 2022-000042 on the flood ordinance text amendments. [clears throat] Here's the agenda items I'm going to go through. Um, all right. So for the the purpose of the proposed text amendments will be to add clarifying definitions to the flood damage prevention ordinance and implement higher standards in the floodway. These standards are intended to expand the definition section, reduce construction in the floodway and reduce temporary structures in the floodway. [clears throat] All right. So just to give a brief overview of the NFIP program um this is the national flood insurance program and it is a FEMA run federal program to provide flood insurance to property owners in participating uh communities. Bookham County joined the NFIP program in 1980 and we adopted our ordinance um in August 1st of 1980. The special flood hazard area um that is shown in the example here is the flood fringe. That is our regulated flood plane. Um this is the 100red-year flood plane which is an area with a 1% chance of experiencing a flood of a base flood level in any given year. Um if you look at the diagram to the left, it shows a breakdown of the special flood hazard area. um the stream channel and the base flood elevation right uh below is where we we Bunkham

County we regulate to two feet above the base flood elevation. So part of the uh changes that we're looking to make in the ordinance is to add the definition excuse me of the conveyance shadow. The conveyanced shadow means an area upstream of or downstream of an existing obstruction to flood flows. Um the diagram to the left kind of shows um what I will be reading through for the definition. Currently there is an allowance where the development can be limited to the hydraulic shadow of a building or other obstruction such as an isolated area of high ground that was in existence at the time of the floodway uh was designed. Essentially, we only allow this in areas that are done for small projects, um, such as building additions or accessory buildings. The conveyance shadow, um, includes the areas immediately upstream and downstream of an existing building or other flood obstruction. uh building uh additions or small accessory structures built entirely within the conveyance shadow can be permitted without the engineering analysis needed for norise certification. A no-rise certification is what we require um if there's any construction in the flood way. The addition or accessory building must also meet all the flood plane management requirements in our ordinance. this definition. Um, it is part of the the NFIP program, but the definition was not included into the actual ordinance. That's a change that we're looking to make here.

Yeah. Are you all familiar with the Mana Food Bank, the old one? Sure.

Okay. So, Mana Food Bank was located entirely in the floodway. Now, this one's in the city of Asheville, but it's going to be a similar situation. Savannah food bank years ago did an addition in the floodway in the conveyance shadow. Now is that a good sound practice to be putting additions in? No. So what we are doing is we want to adopt a higher standard. FEMA says you can do this. Local governments can be more strict. We do not think this is a good idea. So we are simply removing that option. If you have a building in a floodway, that's what you're stuck with. But doing additions in the floodway, we don't believe it's good sound practice. Obviously, we saw what happened to Mana still flooded. You're literally just rewarding someone for doing additional development in the area that's always been a flood.

Sorry, quick question. You mentioned right now the there's a twoft requirement. Is that part of this or is that just part of the general code? So the added so what it's what we call the freeboard is the two feet above face elevation. Um that requirement is for everywhere within the special flood hazard area and that will include the floodway. However, the floodway is the um the more restrictive area because it includes the waterways and I have a slide on floodways. I'll go a little deeper into that as well. Uh within the floodway you actually cannot have any habitable structures. that's part of the NFIP program as well and in our ordinance

um without having any habitable structures that kind of eliminates the requirement the the certain structures are allowable in the flood way. So the conveyance shadow we're looking at just in the flood way. Okay. Um so it would all still require to meet that freeboard that we were talking about.

Um but in this example it shows it as an existing house. So these are uh we're looking at structures that were there prior to our ordinance um or prior to a map change. So they were there now currently they are in our floodway. What the conveyance shadow allows is that this existing house may not currently may not meet our current standards but there is a a [clears throat] mini allowance in the conveyance shadow that allows you to put a structure right in that shadow of the existing building. So we're when we're talking about conveyance shadow again it's it's within the flood way and then we're talking about areas where if it was not in the conveyance shadow it would not be permitted at all but there is an allowance currently and that's what we're trying to change to and again just in the flood way areas where it is heavily regulated. I'm asking because in the wood fin this year we did pass a change to make it four feet not two feet and I don't know if that affects this conveyance shadow particular scenario.

Yeah. So the base flood elevation change that we are looking to make is kind of in a a different phase. Um we're looking at phasing that into the next one to kind of align with our CRS um goals which we'll later. Any other questions? Yeah. CRS stands for community rating system. Thank you. I've got a slide for it. I'll go through that as well.

All right. The next definition that we're looking to add is the repetitive loss. Repetitive loss means a building has submitted and received two or more separate claim payments where the total exceeds the property's value or has four or more claims of 5,000 or more since 1978. This definition is part of the NFIP program. Um, again, it's not in our ordinance written out, so we're looking to just add that into our ordinance. Um, we're going to see a lot of properties with repetitive loss within this 10-year claim, um, be shown with Helen and with Tropical Storm Red. Um, FEMA's repetitive loss properties are buildings with frequent flood claims defined as two or more paid NFIP claims over $1,000 in any 10-year period. So again, we're going to see some of the overlap with tropical storm Fred and Helen, but as a community participating in the NFIP program is pertinent that we have this definition so people are aware of the claims that we're looking at now with Helen and the potential next 10-year period that this will fall into. Um the letter of map change, we're looking to add this definition. and I won't read through the whole thing, but um again part of the NFIP program, something that Bunkham County has always uh enforced within our ordinance. It's just not spelled out into our ordinance. So, we'd like to add that into um the flood ordinance here. The clarification change that we will add on to this that we're looking to add is under the letter of map revision based on fill. So this is an area where there is an allowance of fill into the special flood hazard area and what they do is submit to FEMA to get the area that has been changed and filled removed from the special flood hazard area. Um, we would like to clarify that the

elevated fill must meet the highest regulatory flood protection elevation of the impacted area which for Bunkham County is 2 feet above the base elevation. So again, these are all just clarifying uh definitions to add to our ordinance. Yeah. So the way to think about that is that great got yourself out of the special flood hazard area, but keep in mind we adopt a higher standard. So, we're still holding you to that higher standard, which is just good planning practice. Um, so that's that's one thing that we learned that with talking to the state. Uh, we actually asked the state to also update that in their model ordinance as well, so it's consistent across the across the

Just to clarify, FA FEMA's regulation is to meet base elevation. Bunkham County's regulation is to meet two feet above base elevation. So, we're looking to make that clear in our arguments. So BF is base flood elevation. Sorry on the chart BF is base flood elevation. Yeah, you add your two foot freeboard in and that becomes your regulatory flood elevation because that's what the local community has.

So Ken in your case would you would add four feet and that would become your region for your stuff. So the the diagram on the slide here show is taken from the FEMA manual. So it shows here that the the house elevation is at base flood elevation because that is FEMA's requirement and they had filled the bottom example shows that there was fill placed to meet that base flood elevation and by meeting that per FEMA standards they are removed from the special flood hazard area and are not not required to meet flood regulatory standards. Bunkham County were look we are at two feet above this elevation. So they would we're trying to clarify in this definition that if they are to fill to remove from the special blood hazard area they must meet Bunkham County specific regulation not just FEMA. All right. Substantial improvement definition. We are also looking to um clarify some items on the special improvement uh definition. the the definition in black is already placed in our ordinance. Um what we are looking to add is a clarifying note saying that historic structures must adhere to the variance procedure. So the substantial improvement um not going too deep into it. Um it does state that in the ordinance that you have either option A um any correction of existing violations or community health sanitary or safe code specifications which have been identified by the community code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions or any alteration of historic structure. So, with these two allowances of substantial improvement, um we are clarifying in our ordinance that if you apply to either A or B, you will still need to go through Bunkham County's

variance procedure in order to comply with the rest of our ordinance.

To be clear too as well, uh this is rare. So we processed a variance for a historic structure which we don't have historic districts like the city of Asheville does but this one in particular Mr. No represented the state this was a very old cottage um and this is the only time you you should ever consider for historic structures. So this one was actually raised up two feet after Francis Ivan but John it took still 68 ft in water in addition. Um so I'll give a brief overview of the floodway. Um the photo to the right is in Bunkham County. It's by Warren Wilson College. The pink purple area is the floodway. The blue is the special flood hazard area. It's the 100year um flood that we that Bunkham County we regulate to. And then the green is the 500y year. Bunkham County currently does not regulate the 500year. We are just looking at the blue and the purple. Um and that is our special flood hazard area where our ordinance and regulations apply. The floodway um um the floodway incr includes the channel of a river or other water course and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to pass the base flood discharge without increasing flood depths. So, just to reword that, the floodway will include the waterway, the stream channel. Um, and then it'll also include an area where it the base flood um will not increase a one foot of sir charge if there were impacts in flood fringe.

The flood weight of that green in here. Um, it's a little sliver. Oh, you Oh, if you can see my mouse there, it's that it's a little sliver right here. Okay. Yep. And then down below right here. See it? Okay. Thank you.

Um it it varies in different areas. You'll see other areas where the floodway and the uh 100year are very small and the 500 year is very big. Um but in this case it showed a little bit of each one. The floodway is the area with the highest level of protection due to the nature of impacts with development. Um, of course, because this includes the stream channel and the water course, um, it is highly regulated. An item we'd like to add to the ordinance um, is to in the specific standard section um, to add a clarification. Currently, we have temporary non-residential structures and materials are required to submit an emergency action plan. that is the EAP. Um we'd like to add a clarification that um it is for all temporary structures. So when we look at non-residential a lot of times um it is defined as just structures altogether. We're looking at materials, we're looking at structures um we're looking at all temporary items to be required to submit an emergency action plan. Again, there's an allowance and there's a permit to place items in the flood plane, but we are looking to require that they have an emergency action plan.

Ask a question. Yes. So, this is not a Bunkham County issue. It's a Woodin issue, but just for illustration, we have a plastics factory. Yes. They would be required because they have a lot of inventory just sitting out there on the yard. They would have to know have a plan as to what they were going to do with that.

Correct. That is a great example. Um so when in our ordinance it's defined as temporary non-residential. So certain manufacturing plants will look at their materials their items in this case PVC pipes as not as structures. So we want to define and clarify in our ordinance that this should go for all temporary materials not just structures. So right now, you know, it's a little bit more straightforward if there's like an RV or a travel trailer um that we are able to push that it is considered a structure, but we want to cover all materials including PC piping for them to again there is an allowance to get the permit, but to require an emergency action plan and a robust emergency action plan that they are going to execute in a case like Helen.

Auto camp is that good example? Yes. Yes, great example. Um, AutoCAMP does currently have an emergency action plan. Um, and you know, in our ordinance, it is defined, but to have this clarification will also help push um, the requirement to make them more robust as well.

Now, let me tell you this. This is the hardest part for any community. It doesn't matter where you are in the United States. There is stuff everywhere strewn everywhere. Cargo containers, sheds. This is the hardest thing to regulate. Now, Kim, the example you gave is even trickier because you're talking about pipes and materials that have been out there since the 1980s. So, then you start getting into a conversation of, well, is that material grandfathered? That gets a little trickier. But by making these tweaks, we can at least make it clear so that from the get-go, our main thing we want to do is make sure that people know to get out of there and get out of there safely and quickly at the moment's notice you get a plug warning. Well, how do you do that? You make sure something not leaves, right? When you start talking about materials, there's also the ability to do some anchoring, but for the material that you listed, that's a whole other ball of wax. those kind of things tend to be very pollutable um

right and there it's still ongoing but you know you're talking about propane tanks you're talking about just the mix of materials that we saw in the debris flows and the floatables just it just ran the gamut I mean you're going to find stuff in the river 20 years from now somebody's going to be like oh that was probably from Helen So th this is a very tricky part for any community to to

currently um sorry bringing up the PVC pipes again too. Currently there is an allowance for temporary materials such as the PVC pipes to be on in the special flood house area for 180 days. So a lot of times the reason why they are there is because they cycle them out. They don't stay for as long as 180 days. Again, what this will require is not restricting the allowance for it, but requiring that in the event of emergency, they have an actual plan that is submitted to the county of what they are going to do with those materials if there is an event of an emergency. And that's again the emergency action plan.

So, I think I heard you say you're also going to be changing the standards for what's included in the action plan. How do y'all and how or how will y'all approach the sufficiency of the action plan? And then in the action plan, does it include measurable action steps that you all can determine whether it was then complied with in the event of an emergency? Um, so the the items in the ordinance that spell out what should be included in the emergency action plan won't change. That will stay um as what's in the ordinance. It's just now that we are changing if we're looking to change the definition of removing non-residential to all structures and materials. We're able to now include materials into the requirement for for the EAP. Um the enforcement side is well that's an enforcement code enforcement side.

It's again one of the hardest things we do. An emergency action plan is fairly boil plate. It just lays out a plan for John's got seven RVs stations in a park. How's he going to get those make sure that he is the manager of the parks? Make sure those people get out of there. Auto camp learned some lessons from the storm. Uh we had a couple other RV parks that actually thanked us for what we they got them all out of there. Yep. But

it's still hard to enforce and it's really the emergency action plan is to say, okay, you're doing something that's very risky. Make sure you follow your plan. Uh but you know, the whole premise of the NFIP is mostly more geared towards the production of habitable structures. This is an area where we feel like we can do better and have some higher standards as needed. But the emergency action plan, we don't go out there and like police because there would be no way that we could go out there and force I don't know how many have them force.

Yeah. And you know the uh the Thursday before Halloween I actually went out to Auto Camp and to Silver Line um just that whole area because I know how prone it is and how much is in the floodway and the flood plane. Um so being out there too um as a FPA I was out there just to see you know are people executing their emergency action plan. At a certain point that does cross the line into safety. Um, so you know, Auto Camp was moving, but they still had a lot of the prop of their travel trailers out in the special flood hazard area. Um, again, it was more at for me going out there, it was more of a measure of to see if the emergency action plans are in motion. Um, a lot of these emergency action plans also require that the moment that they get the alert of a flood event is when they are supposed to

Where does that What's that trigger? Is that FEMA that triggers that or is it WLO that triggers a local national and local? They also use Yeah. local too. So like Swan want to know about alerts a little earlier or later than other areas. So they will also in their emergency action plan they will also spell out like which weather service they're using to get their first alert at which level of alert will they be moving um their structures out. So, I guess that answers [clears throat] part of my question in that this is a tool to get people to think about what their plan will be.

Yes. Um, it also sounds like we're not necessarily, I don't mean this critically, we're we're not necessarily judging the contents of the plan other than we have a list of things it needs to include, but the adequacy of whether those things will achieve the goal is not necessarily being judged in what's being submitted. Is that fair?

Yeah, it it is. Um, I would agree with saying that this is more to get these the the land owners to think about an emergency action plan. Um, this clarification specifically is to target adding materials to this again because this wasn't included. Um the structures requirement was always in place and again that's not going to shift but it is intended to put that into their minds of having an emergency action plan and then uh you know the next one I will have it shown exactly what's in our ordinance or you can see it in our ordinance as well structures. Do you all have an estimate on how many additional properties will be will fall into the the requirement for an action plan now that it's being expanded from just structures to materials?

No, we don't because you could have anybody that could uh say open a new garden park or I mean we know the ones that are existing. We also know we had a lot of properties that have a lot of illegal things like unsecured sheds and things will just pop up overnight and this will be residential and commercial within that.

The section 27 outlines basically says minimum of 72 hours before landfall hurricane or immediately upon flood warning notification. I guess and I'll preface this by saying I I think the idea is a good one and we should have it. Where my mind is going is what this will be a lot. I mean conceivably within non-residential and residential structures and considering everything from a shed to I got a pile of pipes in the back. Um I I do y'all h what resources are you identifying or requesting along with this amendment to do the public education that's going to be necessary and to let people know that this is now a requirement and then assist them with stock emergency action plans or other things like that. Um, I I'm I'm less concerned about the auto camp example than I am about the individual residential owner who now has a bunch of stuff and they've got an have an emergency action plan and conceivably that's going to include moving the stuff out of the floodway on notification of a flood warning from

we're not this isn't going to be something like so for a single family this isn't really going to be applied to a single family situation obviously when they come in and permit their house in their shed. We're going to look at that, but we're not looking at somebody's parking a riding lawnmower in their lawn like this is going to be more important multifamily and commercial instances industry.

Okay. I guess I understood with the residential component that it could be that broad with single family and maybe I'll just look at the language when y'all send the amendment but I just I guess that's my feedback is that I think if you're going to have it that broad and I actually think that's a good thing. I mean the amount of debris that was coming through Helen and of course that's an you know extreme example there's a reason why you want it out of the floodway so it doesn't flow and create additional hazards down the line. So, I think this is good, but I think you're going to have to we're going to have to give assistance to those who wouldn't otherwise expect to have to do something.

A good example of that uh is debris flow pathways uh that are contained within our steep slope. We know that we're not going to be able to probably add any additional regulations there because you got some properties that are completely covered up with free club pathways. But what we could do is continuing education. Hey, be aware of the risk. Hey, when you sight your house, maybe move it a little bit from that stream or work with a geotechnical engineer. So, I think some of it's going to be a combination of the continuing education. Hey homeowner, be aware you're permitting everything like you should, but also prime example when worked down in South Florida, we had a lot of homes that were built on significant pilots, 14 feet in the air. Well, all below was typically what was called breakaway construction, but that's where you store your your your mowers and stuff like that. Those walls are going to break away. They will flood away. They're done like that by design. So, I think to John's point, there's going to have to be a component of here's the hard regulations, but also for everybody else, be be wise, be aware. Um, it's kind of like u if you build a house, is it a good idea to have rotors and not laurels all around your house? No, because those are full of oils. Those can the wild card risk. So, I think it's going to be finding a happy medium of regulation. And I want to clarify too, the regulation that there uh must be an emergency action plan submitted for all structures is already in place. So anytime someone comes in for a permit and would like a shed, they are already required to have an emergency action plan that's already in place. The only thing that we're adding here or changing and adjusting is to now include materials. So if a single family home

would like to have a few mulch piles, there should be a plan to whether that that should be considered temporary um which again is that 180 day cycle. And if they are unable to or they should have an emergency action plan for with if within that 180 day that uh hurricane were to have come that they able to remove it and that will be part of the education component of that would be in the outreach would be that it's just included in the permitting process. So, when they come in for a permit to have certain mulch piles or whatever temporary materials, materials only um on their property in the special flood hazard area, we would just ask that they include an emergency action plan. And just to give you a few of the items of what's required um one of the requirements is a name, address, and phone number of the individual responsible for the removal of the temporary structure. So, it's fairly simple. It's I mean I've seen EAPs that are one sheet, two sheets. Um and it essentially just spells out that they have thought out how they are actually going to get this removed. Um and again the structures has already is already in place has been enforced. We're adding materials into this. Um

I I think it's just a situation like let's use the mulch piles as an example where someone would not even necessarily think having mulch delivered would trigger the need to have a temporary permit and an emergency action plan. So more of it's just that layered approach and I think that's both with the owner but also contractors that are providing the work. U anyway we're have to think about it when we bring you language and I think rolling these out together helps. So I think it's the easy to change the language the harder to like okay what's the roll out of the program and the staffing implications and the cost sense I don't want to bring wooden business into the board but I would like to talk to you offline if we get a chance does this cover livestock animals it does not

flood ordinances now oh it's kind of storage I mean you got 10 cows the change um in addition into the my later slides too that go into what materials we're specifically targeting. There's also agricultural exemptions that correct keep farm buildings are still required to meet

far. Now you might end up with a you had like a a barn something like that with with the sides as long as you can get some flow through it. There are ways to design those. They would function like habitable but a lot of people we deal with I mean people every day that just didn't know hey we built a farm building they get a flood permit we had a guy build a riding ring no permits floodway [clears throat] it's not very smart

um and this will go into the temporary storage uh within the floodway uh what we're looking to make a change in for the ordinance this is to remove the allowance of temporary storage in the floodway specifically. Um so this will include travel trailers, travel trailer parks and materials. Um so the items that we are looking to include is to have no new travel trailers or trail travel trailer parks will be permitted to encroach into the floodway and non- encroachment areas. Again, this is specific to the floodway. Um the second item is no temporary storage of floatable materials and this will include mulch t lumber containers or sheds shall be permitted in floodways and [clears throat] non-enroachment areas and

should I say the last one first? Go ahead. Okay. No temporary storage of junked vehicles or mechanized equipment shall be permitted in floodways and non- encroachment areas. I was just going to ask mainly as a clarification for my peers on the board, but could you go back to that slide that shows a distinction between the floodway and the broader regulated area because I think that's important for people to understand what we're talking about when we say just in the floodway. Yep. Thank you. And I believe the purple is the floodway versus the broader regulated area.

And and to that point too, when you have a limited So this is a full detail study area. That's why you have an identified flip. You don't you have what's called a noncroing area and we have a lot of limited detail study areas in the more rural sections of the county. So what that means is there is a way to determine what flood wave would be but we call it the non-enroachment area and it's a calculation based on going to the flood insurance study. Hopefully in the next mapping cycle y'all, which we're so about three years out, we're going to see some more of those limited detail study areas become fully studied areas flood. So that's good.

I'll take note to expand a little bit more on floodway and um some given examples for that as well for next round. Um just if you can see my mouse here, you know, in some areas that are a little bit more narrow in the floodway here because the floodway includes the stream channel and includes the water course that in this area it may as well it may be that the stream channel is right up to the edge of the designated floodway. So there isn't any buildable area to begin with. Um in this area you may seem that the you may see that the stream channel is right, you know, a little bit more narrow and the floodway is larger. So, it really does vary um in different areas, but yes, thank you. It's good to bring back that reminder of the floodway. Um okay, so again, this uh ordinance changes to restrict temporary storage in the floodway specifically and that will be junked vehicles, uh floatable materials and travel trailers or travel trailer parks.

Did you say floatable or floodable? floatable. Floatable like you. We saw lots of blood in RV parks and in in the blood way. I mean, it's just not a good idea. I mean, yeah, you want to get close to the water, but um it was definitely into the wild years ago. Kid drove his car out parked in a flash flood area right by the sun middle of the night got washed away. So So does that mean like existing uh RV parks and stuff like that that are in floodways will

so you're going to have some grandfathering that's going to take place? We have a couple this is just moving forward learning lessons of what hey we don't want to repeat right again going back to the nana food bank example we think that these are really reasonable and can be tied directly to life safety

and there is an allowance in the special flood hazard area for all these temporary structures. We are again just targeting the floodway the area that's heavily protected because of its risk of flooding. Um there we do not have very many um if not any travel trailers. Oh, we do have some um travel trailer parks in the floodway because of the permitting process as well. So with for the NFIP program, there's a requirement that if you are to construct or to do any land disturbance within the flood way that you are required to get a no- rise certification. Now what this requires is that an engineer, a hydraulic engineer needs to provide a hydraulic and a hydraologic um study to show that the structure will not create a rise within the floodway because this is such a heavily protected area. So a lot of um applicants are hesitant. It is very costly. So they are a little hesitant to put especially temporary structures within the floodway. So, we're not looking at um currently a lot of structures that are in the floodway temporarily. Uh but those would be grandfathered in those specifically. And again, they are permitted in the special flood hazard area. We're just targeting the floodway in this case.

Any other Okay. And this is a summary of the proposed text amendments. Um it's to add the conveyance shadow definition uh to add the repetitive loss definition and to add the entire uh letter of map change definition. Uh those three again have been enforced by Bunkham County through our ordinance as participating uh as a participating community of the NFIP program. We would just like to add it to the ordinance so it gets spelled out. Um, Bunkome County specifically, we are looking to expand on the LOMAR F definition to clarify that Bunkome County we have higher standards that the fill must meet 2 feet above base flood elevation which is Bunkham County standard. We're looking to expand on the substantial improvement definition by adding the clarification that historic structures must go through the variance procedure. Um, we are looking to restrict new development in the conveyance shadow. um clarify temporary structures and materials um should say to require an emergency action plan. Uh

does restrict mean stop? No. It says no here. No new development and conveyance shadow. Correct. Yes. Yeah. So the conveyance shadow again is where you have the existing structure in the flood way and there's a a shadow area that someone can currently with our regulation can uh place a new development in only within that shadow. Again that's this will still trigger the no certification the H&H or the hydraulic and hydraologic analysis from the engineers but there is a shadow that in the floodway specifically that a structure can be placed. We are looking to restrict placement in that shadow. Will we get a copy? Oh, yes.

Yes. Yes. So, this is just discussion today. Um, so we get the technology working better. We will we're going to have a lot more graphics. Okay. But essentially, if we adopted something like this, you had your mana building in the floodway. That's it. No new additions. That's what happened. and they did it in that in that shadow which FEMA allows but our community thinks it's a good idea to not do that for reasons ABC FG

um and I'm happy to take note of you know areas that I can expand um as well like in the flood way and the emergency action plan was a good one to bring up I can take note to expand on those as well um no temporary storage of travel trailers and travel trailer parks in the flood way. Uh no temporary storage of materials again in the flood way and no temporary storage of jumped vehicles in the flood way and those are all targeted at floodway. It this helps us as look like administrators as well because we do have a lot of folks that don't follow the rules. So, we've got an area that's that's, you know, and this is not just one area, but we we have some folks that just like to hold on to for a very long time, [clears throat]

store things on their property, and it makes it really hard to justify that when you got somebody that rightly complains. But code enforcement is also a very difficult thing for any of us to do. And it doesn't matter what ordinance you're you're whether it be a junk vehicle, whether it be a home in severe disrepair. It's one of the hardest things for us to do. And Kirk would probably raise his hand and say, "Yes, it's right. That's a very hard thing to do sometimes to get people to these these do not these seem pretty common sense

based on what we've seen. Are we going to be raising any eyebrows say to a certain town beginning with our east of us? [laughter] So that planning

I that was one of my questions maybe more to Kurt. I know initially there was a good bit of guidance that said that tinkering with your flood plane ordinance could meet the definition of Z downzoning under 382. Um, what guidance have y'all gotten that is new, different, the same about these? Because I do think these would create nonconformities on certain parcels, particularly the shadow area uh change.

Well, food and that's that legislation that no planner can tell you what it means. No attorney can tell you what it means. It would take a court to tell you what it means. I will say this, a flood ordinance is not a designed ordinance. standalone ordinance based on the national flood insurance program which is a federal program and we are a state coordinating agency. I would say it does not apply to whatever that nebulous thing is that they pass that everybody's like well it's there and and we're required to follow it to you know

once again there are public safety ordinances that are different than planning and zoning planning and zoning ordinances there's not necessarily a nonconformed use clause for public safety ordinances when you make changes to that. Um, once again, I'm not sure. I still think we need to move forward with changes regardless of whether something is nonconforming or not. That would be a battle that we have to pick up later on down the road. I think not for fear of something becoming nonconformity would prohibit us from from moving forward and preventing other things from happening in the future. So that that that's kind of where I think that it is a gray area. It's something that we're going to have to maneuver, but I don't think it's something that should be prohibiting us from from making decisions, especially in regard.

And keep in mind the the state we were we are fortunate to be one of the few states where we're a direct coordinating agency. So that means states in the driver's seat are doing flood maps. So we take direction from directly from the state of North Carolina Department of Public Safety and they already have an updated model ordinance. So and joining and when we join the community rating system that's federal program it allows you to adopt our standards. Yeah. So that's that's kind of where our mindset is.

I'm encouraged. I'll also note too that if there are materials current with our current ordinance no changes with our current current ordinance if there is a landowner that is placing all these temporary materials in the floodway they are required to get a no- ride certification and a hydraulic and hydraologic analysis done by an engineer and a the go through the entire permitting process. Again, it is very costly. So at this time our current enforcement for if there is temporary material in the floodway is to require the norise certification and the H&H analysis and to have an engineer and to do the whole permitting process. Most of the time um for me it's from what I've seen it's 100% of the time they are electing to remove everything out of the way. Um but with adding this change to the ordinance, we are just restricting any materials to be stored again only in the flood way. They can place it into the special flood hazard area through our peritting process just not in the flood way specifically because again it's very highly regulated and there is high risk. Okay. And I'll touch a little briefly on the community rating system. This is in our Bunkham County 2043 comprehensive plan. Um the community rating system is a program developed by FEMA which credits NFIP communities that adopt flood plane standards beyond minimal federal requirements for participation in the NFIP. Currently um we are a participating community in the NFIP. We are not currently in the community rating system but it is a goal. Um and to in order to meet this we are looking to increase our standards um higher than FEMA's uh required standards. Uh Bunkham County for example uh the two feet above baseline elevation that is a higher

standard that Bunkham County is already um enforcing. So, we're looking with these changes in the ordinance, we are looking to kind of help that trajectory of increasing um certain standards to meet community meet the requirements of a community rating system. New question. I have a couple unless there's others. Um what are the aspects of the model ordinance that we're not incorporating as part of this proposed change? And if so, why not now? If so, or when?

We're doing a phased approach here. Reason being is most of the time that you So, the last time we we did this, try to line these up with a with a mapping cycle. So, we want to make sure that we stay as closely aligned to that as possible. Um, so what we're going to do is phase one now, life safety. Phase two staggered approach to enter the community grade system. Correct me on this. This is where we said that by that time will be probably with the new map cycle we're trying to line up. Yes. Go CS lower bubble with the higher tier.

Yes. So with administratively and for the community um we want to reduce the number of dates and times everyone needs to know where the regulations have shifted. So within map changes, we're looking to align that with um the BFE increase different changes so that administratively and for the community they have one change to know when that map has changed that we're increasing the BFE along with that one to also follow the community rating system and that'll be approximately three years from now.

Next mapping cycle. Yes. But that's a whole process where we have to go to public hearings, show the maps to the community. gets very involved because I was in the last one and that's where we actually go visit the towns and that's one of our our roles. So, we're trying to make this as easy as possible not only for communities but for us to enforce it as well. I can understand the the connection between wait till the map changes so that when the map changes you also have regulatory changes happening at the same time. But I'm just trying to be clear on so we're talking three to five years depending on that process between when it will actually come into effect.

And that is just for targeting changes such as increasing the baseline elevation. Increasing baseline elevation doesn't prevent any um allowance of structures in the special flood hazard area. It's just changing the requirement of elevation. These changes that we're looking to propose initially is all the restrictions that are in the flood way areas that u we're looking at resiliency of just clarifying areas of the flood way to remove it from the high-risk areas. The BFE changes we're looking to align with the maps because it is still allowing structures to be placed in the special flood hazard area. It's just changing height. So we're looking at more if this is the water course and streamway, we're looking to move this way first away from the water course and then in the second phase look at clarifying areas where we can increase regulations for when they actually build. So upwards.

So we know that there's going to be changes. We don't know what they look like yet. Some areas are going to see better conveyance. So we had, you know, water courses that were like this are now like this. But there's going to be plenty areas where you're going to see uh the fringe the 100redyear increase where it wasn't before to go into the 500 year. But eventually down the road as we enter the community rating system depending on what the appetite of the community is for how high of a tier Charlotte's almost the platinum standard in the United States but they have very different dynamics than us. But at that time that you start entering the CRS, you can do things like say, okay, I'd like to have a regulation in the 500 year. Now, uh I'd like to look at uh compensatory flood storage. Uh which means basically naturebased solutions to where you would keep water on lands that serve as just open space. And that way it hopefully keeps it from a more built environment maybe downstream by the time you get to Bilmore Village. Years ago after Francis Ivan there was actually an idea floated with the Army Corps of Engineers to do some flood storage on the Warren Wilson property. Now, that fell through, but let's also keep in mind that we're going to we're going to be receiving a lot of properties through the hazard mitigation grant program that are acquisition properties. When you start stringing these properties together, you can do things like greenway, flood storage, like so there's a lot of things going on all at once. We're trying to bring you all the most what we think is the most methodical easy solution and these are the things that we've identified that are most critical to impact to help us as well district.

So as we've seen in Helen as well you know Bunkham County's regulation is to the 100redyear flood event. Helen far exceeded that. So regard with our structures that have met the current regulations, they were completely flooded out. So areas within Swanoa, we had a new development that had completed their project, met our current standards, and had six feet above our regulatory floor, which is 2 feet above the base elevation, but the floodway area was completely demolished. So that's kind of where our mentality is with prioritizing the flood way as making immediate changes because those are the areas that are at high risk that will flood in a base base flood event. So that's the areas that we are looking to target as an immediate change. Elevation again it will depend on the um flood event but with Helen it far exceeded it. So it's an area where we're looking at higher standards to implement along with map changes but immediate changes we're looking at the highest risk area which again is the floodway.

Follow up on that considering the focus being life safety with these changes are there any set of circumstances under which residential development can occur within the flood way excepting grandfathered structures and other things that might already exist. So with the NFIP program, there's a definition that there are no habitable structures in the floodway. There are grandfathered structures, the ones that were built prior to 1980, and we had do have a good amount in Bunkham County. Um, and with the map change that happened in 2010, there were some structures that were not in the floodway prior to 2010 that are now currently in the floodway uh 2010. With the map change in the future, we will also adjust to grandfathering those in in that same manner. Um, but with our current ordinance and not just a specific Bome County one, but with the NFIP program, there's no habitable structures in the floodway.

I would assume the definitional change related to the substantial improvement and the years and cost essentially what you're probably adopting something like what the city of Asheville did that allows for you to combine over a longer period of time to prevent people from stringing out the improvements to avoid the substantial change. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Though our repetitive loss look back is 10 years. Did that change at all?

Not with this round, but potential future higher standard consider. But I will tell you this, we saw a number of structures that were substantially damaged and aren't coming back. So that this this event did take out quite a few structures that have been a problem for a long time. And we've even got structures that were built to today's standard that are seeking to be acquired just because the

flood insurance that's a whole other story. They made some changes that basically said if if you're a primary home, if it's your primary home, you're you're going to get this rate. But say say you have a bunch of rentals, you get get pretty good with those search hard, which is unfortunate because you got people that supply affordable houses. But we have one owner that that built to current standards was like I I'm out because the flood insurance came. So there's a lot to it.

And again, that actually I know which property you're talking about. That's the one I was talking about where they built to the current standards and it flooded out probably like six to eight feet past their main floor which is already two feet above basement elevation. Does a homeowner lose their grandfather status if their home is demolished? Depends on substantial damage. If they are declared a substantial damage and it um exceeds the 50% threshold to repair the entire home, then yeah, they they would not be meeting our they are required to meet our current standard at that point. And but they can build back in the flood floodway to the new standards. It would have to meet our current standard. So no. Okay. So they

I mean if you're in the floodway and you're substantially damaged, you're done. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have a lot of cases where they were substantially damaged and they are able to repair it unfortunately. And what's interesting is I mean I drive by Beacon Village every day

and there's so many people that are like all right what's your basic standard? All right here's what I want to do. I want to build three or four or five voluntarily. Like it was the craziest thing. We never seen this amount of people wanting to voluntarily build back to a much higher standard kind of on their own. Most of you can village some 500 here. When you get over to the grid area that downtown like street places like that, there's there's places in there that are not even in the special hazard area. Engles front door 800t special flood hazard still water.

Well, and and that sort of goes back to the questions styles raised. I mean, I know we're talking about with this what's in the floodway itself, but I've talked to several people who live in Swanoa and they live high up and we're talking about the effect of the u the runoff water. So, how where does that get addressed?

Sure. So, I think that's area and our steep slope protective bridge overways like that. There's not problem is if you have a thousand year event you're going everybody's going to play every single in county east of Asheville took some amount of scouring and damages. We've done things in the overlays like where we've really stripped down the amount of permanent pieces to pretty much single family home. Now, once you go beyond that, then you're really starting to get into what potentially be called a regulatory taking or really severely damage someone's property rights. So, I think in in an area like that, I think that's where our education campaign is coming in. We could look at further restricting impervious area. But I will say Jillian and I were talking the other day because we're thinking in our planning career that's one of the things we're most proud of the adoption of those overlays.

And just remember there's a lot of subdivisions out there that were built prior to the storm water ordinance prior to the subdivision ordinance prior to then ste. Well and town mountain is one of those right? Town preserve. Well, yeah. Town Mountain itself. That's not a subdivision. That's a Well, that's not a subdivision. You're right. Yeah. But yeah, those are older subdivisions that, you know, have very large homes on them.

Um, you're also dealing with areas that have a lot of unstable soils and debris flow pathways and and multiple streams and Yeah. Well, and even where I live in Weaverville, part of the development, not all of it, but they've had severe erosion due to the due to Hela and they obviously weren't expecting. And I guess that's the thing that makes it so difficult is especially if you're talking about 500 year flooding or thousand-y year flooding. I mean, that's not what we're going to expect to have happen like this year, next year just because of what happened with Hela. But on the other hand, it will happen again. and and when it does, yeah, you're going to have all this destruction all over again,

right? So, I think that's the hardest thing for any planner to do is what what level of regulation can the community handle? Uh, you know, because every day as regulators, we deal with the community, the development community might think that there's too much storm water regulation, but residents think there maybe is not just enough. There are some residents that want to go as granular as one down spot spout. But in an event like what it did was it opened up ancient river beds and scoured so badly that people actually got to see how river beds and ancient streams have shifted over thousands and thousands years.

Yeah. It'll happen again. It's just I think we have to think about the level of protection. To to Miss Lee's point, we're going to see more tropical storm predence. So, um 1916 when we had a lot less people living there, we still have massive destruction, scouring, and erosion, and all the things we saw here. So, it's just what level can the community stomach? What what would Raleigh allow us to do? you know, it's kind of dialed that in best

and that was our intention again uh just to emphasize that we are with this round targeting the flood way just the flood way where it's already very highly regulated and the area that's everything below a 100redyear storm and tropical storm Fred was multiple hundredyear storm of events. So we're really looking at reduction and resilience by removal in the floodway specifically while having the allowance in special flood hazard area within the flood way to build um or to have any land disturbance within the floodway anyways is already very highly restrictive um no new habitable structures no land disturbance that will cause any sort of rise. So, we're looking to just move with that momentum of areas that are very high at risk and are areas that will regularly flood and include the actual water course as well to be protected.

That's I don't want to open up a can of worms. Um, but as the maps are withdrawn or redrawn, you would expect in certain areas that the actual floodway will be delineated differently. Yes. My question is the con the the con the horribly misleading concepts of hundredyear floods which I would rather see expressed in terms of probabilities right my understanding is from the science that I've read is that this is a 100redyear flood that we describe it now is actually more like 30-year flood now there's a three 3.7% chance where it used to be a 0.1% chance

do you have any sense that the people responsible for redrawing the maps are thinking about it at at that level in that way. No, because you'd have to completely change the methodology. The NFI NFIP program has to be rethought at the national level entirely to keep up with with climate change. And you're saying it's not really being re rethought or

Well, what I'm saying is the models are fine, but the problem is today's weather is different. It's the atmosphere is holding more moisture. These are the things we know but at the same time as delegated let's use erosion control for example as a delegated authority we can only regulate to what the state says and nothing above like so we're trying to follow that whole federal state you know the three three league clover approach as to what we can do but there's not much I can do about them rethinking the entire methodology of the NFIP But knowing what we know and living in the mountains and living in a very perilous place, we have the CRS program. So, we can adopt higher standards through there, but there's not much we can do in terms of the way that the maps are presented.

Right. I I wasn't I wasn't implying that we we can do. I just I'm curious as what is happening at the at the federal level and how much because they haven't even technically reauthor they need to reauthorize the NFIP and right now we're under a CR continuing resolution for the budget. So if we wanted to kind of align with that as well it would be that um Bunkome County would uh adopt the higher or ordinance of regulating to the 500 year. So, if we're going to go along with like, well, these storms are happening a lot more regularly, then let's expand past the hundredyear. If these maps are created using the topography and the land um as well. So, we would just adjust and regulate even further out which would encompass that

and we can do that. We can with an adoption of a higher. Yes. And that's kind of the direction we're thinking. Now, crazy thing about this storm, too, was who who would have ever ever thought that logging roads cut across the mountains 100 years ago would trigger as many landslides as they did. But we use the LAR data to show these trigger points. And that's that same LAR data that's so phenomenal to help us map the new flood plane. they're pinging using the same um technology to do those maps.

This diagram here shows a little bit more this photo of the 500year, the flood fringe, the 100year, and the flood way. Um you can see the green area a little bit more. Um I do want to emphasize that if we start looking at regulating out to the 500y year, there is still an allowance for the 100 and the 500 um and some in the floodway as well. So, you know, if we're looking at resiliency and trying to change the amount of loss it would be to target the areas that are critical which would be the floodway and the 100. So, you know, if we if there is a a thought to expand out to the 500y year, um you know, you can make the 500y year, you can increase the regulations in the 500y year and make it a little bit more resilient um in elevation or flood proofing, different changes like that. But I want to emphasize that you the flood way and the flood fringe are the areas that are going to flood before the 500 year. So, our area of focus is the flood way because that's We're working our way up.

Yeah, exactly. And that's what I meant about like, you know, we're starting from the stream and working out versus uh working up. That's more in the second phase, looking at elevation in the second phase, but currently looking at working out. Thank you.

And I also just wanted to come back to the NFIP program and kind of highlight the emphasis of why we have why we are a participating community and why it is so important. Um, the NFIP program from FEMA also allows our community to have access to FEMA backed if you have a FEMA backed mortgage to have a heavily reduced flood insurance. So, with Helen, we saw a lot of the homeowners actually not have flood insurance be potentially because of the cost of it. Um what our participation in the program does is allow these homeowners because we are participating to have access to FEMA backed flood insurance. Um it also allows you know we we hear about HMGP a lot. Um it also by participating in this program Bunkham County is eligible to have the HMGP benefits from FEMA for the areas within the special flood hazard area because we have our ordinance of fire state. So we are doing the protection for our own community but by participate participating in the program we are looking at FEMA backed benefits as well

and I'm getting ready to see something exciting happen uh they're going to start elevating houses yes through this program through the HMG program the other thing they do so typically the traditional suite of HMG is usually acquisition is kind of the nuclear option but you always want to give somebody the option to Hey, elevate or they can tear down your existing house, build you a new house to current standards. That's not super fancy at the contractor grade, but it's still a new house at no cost to the home.

And al this is a side program also because we are participating in the NFIB program. we have ICC the increased cost of compliance is that that structures that we had mentioned before that are substantially damaged. they have a separate funding source from FEMA because we are a participating community that allows them to get a separate fund to repair their home um and be able to remain $30,000

and that's separate from HF3 fee and whatever they would any final questions again discussion today obviously we're Just trying to think through some things with y'all. Show you some of our cards. Bring more fancy diagrams and start with some language if you all nod your head and say go forward. Yeah.

And if there are any areas that you would like me to highlight um in the next discussion as well, I'm happy to if you want to let me know which ones. Sounds like the emergency action plan and the floodway are the two that hit up. So, are we going to continue working on this like in our next meeting or and the lighting issue will come up at some point again or

like us to prioritize life safety ordinances? So we'll do flood, we'll do E911 addressing, and then we'll go back to lighting and the other ones that are associated with the zoning ordinance. It's also that um you know the flood ordinance, the E911 ordinance are separate ordinances outside the zoning ordinance. While we give some time for the general assembly or maybe another county to be get to get sued over the no non-conforming use, no down voting block. Okay, sounds reasonable.

Thank you very much. That was very informative. So, at the next meeting, would you like to schedule a workshop to talk about changes and if we'll do as many workshops as you guys need and then we can schedule a public hearing for it. Sounds good. Okay. And just if any of you are not gonna I know the holiday season you're not going to be here for January. If you would let Alia know so we can make sure we have what's the next step on lighting from our prior meeting.

So we are working on those changes requested but we're holding it again until we focus on what commissioners want us to focus on and to ordinances that are not within the zoning ordinance. So the flood ordinance we'll do the flood ordinance first. And then we'll do E911 addressing and then we'll move back to zoning ordinance revisions. Okay. And see where that downzoning no non-conformant no creation of non-conformant uses bill or law ends up. You said addressing E911 addressing. Yes. Which

which is what? Sorry. So that is our addressing ordinance but it is very very important. Every structure in the county has an or every dwelling unit or commercial building has an E911 address and that is how that is how emergency services find you if there is an emergency and it hasn't been modernized in a long time or looked at. So we are looking at it. We are updating it again in in reaction to what happened during Helen and making sure that we have all our ducks in a row to the next next um hopefully not but the next big event.

We provide those services to not just county but all the municipalities excluding Asha. Right. So it needs to definitely be modernized. It needs to be a lot more consistent. And you know, you would be surprised at how many duplicate road maps we have across the county, but it is very important when you're trying to find something. Oh, I live on road or den room. Which one? Yeah, [clears throat] one of 40 different words or Mountain Hill Lane or I could go on and on and on and on, but we definitely need

I can tell you now you are not allowed to use mountain in any new revolution. [laughter] You have so many Laurel. Yeah. [laughter] Wow. Ask a distinctly non-strategic question. Do we need a parking permits for next year? Do they with that lot being empty? We'll get back to you on that. So, we still don't know when we're moving to the new place. We're getting closer. They've done some test meetings in there.

You seen that commercial? I was like, I think we're going to renovate our [laughter] renovate our kitchen. The meeting room have monitors. They're a little closer for Yes, it will be. It will be a lot better. It's just making sure it's nice. He'll be up. All right. And then what we'll do is we'll be getting stickers from the Everybody will have a set of binoculars to see the screen. [laughter]

It's actually laid out. I mean, this function obsolete columns whereas this is just one giant rectangle and you can do a divider wall and it's literally got a monitor on every single wall. So you can do it multiple different ways. I think the board of adjustment be using this room as well. Yeah. Ready to leave commission chambers? I know John. But John, it's funny. He'll show up and like do you need any help? He's got like six brief cases and suitcases and all kinds of stuff. We want them to be able to see what we're talking about. I know

it's hard despite there being so so many screens in that room. There's no convenient place to put anything. the new room you'll be able to connect to the screens to do. There you go. I can't wait for you. Can't wait. Everybody have a good Christmas. You too. Thank you. So, I guess we need to adjourn. To adjourn. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Did you get that?