Permitting
Communities participating in the NFIP agree to enforce minimum standards for development activities in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). The questionnaire asked respondents to answer questions about designated flood hazard areas shown on their community’s adopted regulatory flood maps. The questionnaire sought to identify the types of permits granted in the designated flood hazard areas by asking “In the past year, how many of the following kinds of permits were granted in designated flood hazard areas?”
Building New Structures
The responses showed a significant difference in community size related to the number of new building permits. Across the three populations ranges, the percentage of communities issuing no permits decreased by approximately 20% with each increasing population range. This may not be overly surprising, given that smaller communities may not have many permits annually. As would be expected, the larger communities issued more permits over the year.
Substantial Improvement to Existing or Substantially Damaged Structures
This question is a subset of the building permits. The number of permits generally increased with community population size.
Fill, Grading, or Other Non-Structural Activities
As with other permits, the number of permits increased with community population size.