Bethel, CT Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Base flood elevation, or BFE, is defined as the height of the 100-year flood's crest in relation to mean sea level (NAVD of 1988) at a given point in the floodplain. 1J(1), new construction or substantial improvement of a residential structure must have its lowest floor, including any basement, elevated to or above that BFE; the same elevation rule applies to manufactured homes and recreational vehicles sited 180 days or longer in Zones A or AE. 1J(3): elevate to the BFE, or instead build watertight below that level, with walls substantially impermeable to water and structural components able to resist hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads.

Any fully enclosed area below the BFE, on either building type, must be designed to auto-equalize floodwater pressure: at least two flood vents on two different walls, sized to one square inch of net opening per square foot of enclosed area, with the bottom of each opening no higher than one foot above the adjacent grade, and the space can never be finished as living space or hold utility equipment. Notably, Bethel's regulation stops at 'to or above' the BFE, with no separate mandatory freeboard foot layered on top of that federal baseline.