Ordinances 2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Portsmouth, Virginia, Code of Ordinances: PART II -CODE -Chapter 14.1 FLOOD PROTECTION Addition (fo an existing building) means any walled and roofed expansion to the perimeter of a building in which the addition is connected by a common load-bearing wall o#her than a fire wall. Any walled and roofed addition which is connected by a fire wall or is separated by independent perimeter load-bearing walls is new construction. Base hood means a flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Base flood elevation (BFE) means one percent annual chance water surface elevation designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The water surface elevation of the base flood in relation to the datum specified on the community's Flood Insurance Rate Map. For the purposes of this ordinance, the base flood is the 1 % annual chance flood. Basement means any area of the building having its floor sub-grade {below ground level} on all sides. Board means the Board of Zoning Appeals. Breakaway wall means a wall that is not part of the structural support of the building and is intended through its design and construction to collapse under specific lateral-loading forces without causing damage to the elevated portion of the building or supporting foundation system, Coastal high-hazard area means an area of special flood hazard extending from offshore to the inland limit of a primary franta! dune along an open coast and any other area subject to high-velocity wave action from stones or seismic sources. Design Flood Elevation (DFEJ means the higher of: {1) The base flood elevation at the depth of peak elevation (including wave height) which has a one percent or greater chance of being equaled in any given year plus 3.0 feet; or {2} The elevation of the base flood associated with the area designated on a flood hazard map adopted by the community, or otherwise legally designated plus 3.t} feet. Development means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real estate., including, but not limited to, buildings or other structures, the placement of manufactured homes, streets, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials, or the subdivision of land. For purposes of this chapter the date of development is considered the date of land disturbance or the date of issuance of a land disturbance permit, whichever is earlier. Elevated building/structure means anon-basement building which has its lowest elevated floor raised above ground level by foundation walls, shear wa(Is, pasts, piers, pilings, or columns, Encroachment means the advance or infringement of uses, plant growth, fill, excavation, buildings, permanent structures or development into a floodplain, which may impede or alter the flow capacity of a floodplain. 3