COM 0176.015 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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estate or improved real property, water and sanitary facilities, structures, and their contents. [(-~8j] "Floodway" or "regulatory floodway" means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot. [(~9~] "Floodway fringe" is the azeas of a floodplain on either side of the designated floodway where encroachment may be permitted. [(38)] "Fraud and victimization" related to article 5, variances, of this chapter means that the variance granted must not cause fraud on or victimization of the public. Tn examining this requirement, the director of public works will consider the fact that every newly constructed building adds to government responsibilities and remains a part of the community for fifty to one hundred years. Buildings that are permitted to be constructed below the base flood elevation aze subject during all those years to increased risk of damage from floods, while future owners of the property and the community as a whole are subject to all the costs, inconvenience, danger, and suffering that those increased flood damages bring. In addition, future owners may purchase the property, unawaze that it is subject to potential flood damage, and can be insured only at very high flood insurance rates. [(3-I)] "Freeboard" means a factor of safety usually expressed in feet above a flood level for purposes of floodplain management. "Freeboard" tends to compensate for the many unknown factors that could contribute to flood heights greater than the height calculated for a selected size flood and floodway conditions, such as wave action, bridge openings, and the hydrological effect of urbanization of the watershed. [(3~] "Functionally dependent use" means a use which cannot perform its intended purpose unless it is located or tamed out in close proximity to water. The term includes only docking facilities, port facilities that aze necessary for the loading and unloading of cargo or passengers, and ship building and ship repair facilities, but does not include long-term storage or related manufacturing facilities. [(33)] "General floodplain" -See "zone A." [(34)] "Hazdship" as related to article 5, variances, of this chapter means the hazdship that would result from a failure to grant the requested variance. The director of public works requires that the variance be exceptional, unusual, and peculiaz to the property involved. Mere economic or financial hardship alone is not exceptional. Inconvenience, aesthetic considerations, physical handicaps, personal preferences, or the disapproval of one's neighbors likewise cannot, as a rule, qualify as exceptional hardships. All of these problems can be resolved through other means, without granting a variance. This is so even if the alternative means aze more expensive or complicated than building with a variance, or if they require the property owner to put the pazcel to a different use than originally intended, or to build elsewhere. [(33)] "Highest adjacent grade" means the highest natural elevation of the ground surface prior to construction next to the proposed walls of a structure. [(36)] "Historic structure" means any structure that is: (A) listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places (a listing maintained by the Department of Interior) or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual listing on the National Register; (B) certified or preliminarily deternned 6