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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: October 16, 2018 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 5-a <br /> SUBJECT: Unified Development Ordinance Text Amendments — Update of Effective Date <br /> of Flood Information Rate Maps (FIRM) <br /> DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 1. UDO Amendment Outline Form Michael D. Harvey, Planner III, (919) 245-2597 <br /> 2. Excerpt of September 5, 2018 Planning Craig Benedict, Director, (919) 245-2575 <br /> Board Minutes and Signed Statement of <br /> Consistency <br /> 3. Statement of Consistency <br /> 4. UDO Text Amendment Package <br /> 5. Legal Advertisement <br /> PURPOSE: To hold a public hearing on a Planning Director initiated Unified Development <br /> Ordinance (UDO) text amendment updating the effective date for the County's Flood Insurance <br /> Rate Maps (FIRMs). <br /> BACKGROUND: Orange County has been a member of the National Flood Insurance Program <br /> (NFIP) since approximately 1976. The NFIP offers flood insurance to homeowners, renters, and <br /> business owners if their community participates in the program through the adoption and <br /> enforcement of regulations designed to mitigate/reduce flood risk. This includes adoption of <br /> flood maps denoting areas where flooding is a possibility, specifically FIRM developed and <br /> maintained by Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA). <br /> Staff was informed by State emergency management officials there is going to be a FIRM <br /> update, specifically a modification of floodplain data on several FIRMs impacting property in <br /> Durham County. The maps contain property in both Orange and Durham counties, effectively <br /> making them `shared maps'. While this update will not result in a change in identified flood data <br /> within Orange County (i.e. no increase or decrease in flood area on property in Orange County's <br /> planning jurisdiction), the data on the shared FIRMs is being changed. As a result, Orange <br /> County must modify existing regulation(s) to reflect the new FIRM effective date of October 19, <br /> 2018. <br /> This amendment needs to be adopted by October 19, 2018 in order for Orange County to <br /> remain eligible for participation in the NFIP. A copy of the recommended language is contained <br /> within Attachment 4. <br />