Austin City Council approve new flood plain maps

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It’ll cost a bit more to build a home in Austin with City Council’s approval of new flood plain maps, as a federal report (Atlas 14) shows more water falling in the central Texas area.

The old 500 year flood plain, is the new 100…and the old 100 is now the 25 year flood plain. The Real Estate Council of Austin’s Geoffrey Tahuahua praised the change and explained, council’s response also means each new residential development and home rebuild has to be built 2-feet above where the expected flood waters would reach.
“Since staff has kind of now unified it with this ordinance, in saying hey if you meet these criteria, its an automatic administrative variance…so in the end that makes it a little more predictable if someone is trying to figure out what they can do with their house.”

Tahuahua said, previously developers needed to sort through four city approved options, and this simplifies the process. The new codes only address residential builds for now, city staffers and builders are now looking into the commercial code. Staff hope to have something before council next year. 
 

(Photo:Shutterstock/Karamysh)

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