The purpose of this process is to promote public health, safety, and general welfare and to minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions in specific areas by provisions designed to:

 

A floodplain is typically a lowland area adjoining a watercourse. At a minimum, the area is subject to a 1% or greater chance of flooding in a given year.  The 100-Year Storm is not a storm that occurs once every 100 years.

A floodway is the part of a watercourse that provides most of the conveyance for a flood event.  Specifically, it is the channel of a watercourse and adjacent land areas that must be reserved to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface more than one foot above the base flood elevation and without creating hazardous velocities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has mapped the floodplains of most of the major channels in Caldwell.  These floodplains are shown on Federal Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) and are the basis for flood insurance rates.  These maps are located at City Hall and are available for review.

If any proposed grading or improvements involve property in the floodway, 100-year, and/or the 500-year regulatory floodplain, a (no-rise certification) through a hydraulic flood study prepared by an engineer licensed in the State of Texas is required. The applicant’s engineer will need to submit the study and supporting hydraulic data to the City’s Engineering Department. This information will be reviewed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as well as the City. The appropriate FEMA application forms and fees will also be required at the time of submission.

NOTE: A detailed study may also be required for development in areas that do not yet have a mapped floodway but have been identified as floodplains. If the proposed grading or improvements only involve property in the floodplain fringe, a development plan and permit application (with the appropriate certifications) will need to be submitted to the City for review and approval only. After construction, elevation certificates will be required as applicable to the project.

Requirements associated with property in the Floodplain:

The City of Caldwell has adopted Ordinance 1-21-2025-B, a new flood damage prevention ordinance designed to enhance protection against flood-related hazards. This ordinance establishes higher standards for floodplain management and expands regulations to include both the 100-year and 500-year floodplains. The goal is to safeguard structures, mitigate potential flood risks, and ensure alignment with the City’s Comprehensive Plan.

Key Provisions of Ordinance 1-21-2025-B

Why This Matters
Flooding poses a significant risk to our community, and the adoption of this ordinance is a proactive step to reduce potential property damage and protect public safety. These updated regulations will help ensure that future development does not exacerbate flood risks for residents and businesses in Caldwell.

Property owners, developers, and builders must comply with the new regulations when planning construction or improvements within designated floodplains. The City of Caldwell encourages residents to review the ordinance and contact the Floodplain Administrator for guidance on compliance and permitting.

The Elevation Certificate is an important administrative tool of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  It is to be used to provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with community floodplain management ordinances, to determine the proper insurance premium rate, and to support a request for a Letter of Map Amendment or Revision (LOMA or LOMR-F). The Elevation Certificate is required in order to properly rate post-FIRM buildings, which are buildings constructed after publication of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). The Elevation Certificate is not required for pre-FIRM (prior to 11/19/1980) buildings unless the building is being rated under the optional post-FIRM flood insurance rules.

As part of the agreement for making flood insurance available in a community, the NFIP requires the community to adopt a floodplain management ordinance that specifies minimum requirements for reducing flood losses. One such requirement is for the community to obtain the elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all new and substantially improved buildings and maintain a record of such information.  “Substantial improvement” means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvements to a structure, the total cost of which equals or exceeds 30 percent of the market value of the structure before the start of construction of the improvement. The Elevation Certificate provides a way for a community to comply with this requirement.

Use of this certificate does not provide a waiver of the flood insurance purchase requirement.  Only a LOMA or LOMR-F from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can amend the FIRM and remove the Federal mandate for a lending institution to require the purchase of flood insurance.  However, the lending institution has the option of requiring flood insurance even if a LOMA/LOMR-F has been issued by FEMA.  The Elevation Certificate may be used to support a LOMA or LOMR-F request.  The lowest floor and lowest adjacent grade elevations certified by a surveyor or engineer will be required if the certificate is used to support a LOMA or LOMR-F request.

This certificate is used only to certify building elevations.  A separate certificate is required for floodproofing.  Under the NFIP, non-residential buildings can be floodproofed up to or above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE).  A floodproofed building is a building that has been designed and constructed to be watertight (substantially impermeable to floodwaters) below the BFE.  Floodproofing of residential buildings is not permitted under the NFIP unless FEMA has granted the community an exception for residential floodproofed basements.  The community must adopt standards for the design and construction of floodproofed basements before FEMA will grant a basement exception.  For both floodproofed non-residential buildings and residential floodproofed basements in communities that have been granted an exception by FEMA, a floodproofing certificate is required.

These certificates are prepared by Engineers, Architects or Land Surveyors registered in our State.   Blank forms and instructions for completion may be found on the FEMA Elevation Certificate page.