Bowling Green, KY Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Chapter 28, Flood Damage Prevention, sets Bowling Green's freeboard standard at Sec. 28-5.02. For residential construction, new construction or substantial improvement of a residential structure or manufactured home "shall have the lowest floor, including basement, mechanical equipment and ductwork elevated no lower than one and a half (1.5) feet above the base flood elevation." Where solid perimeter walls are used to elevate a house, the walls need openings sized to let floodwater move through unimpeded. Once built, a registered professional engineer or surveyor must certify the lowest floor's elevation, verified by the Housing and Community Development, Buildings and Inspections Division, and that certification goes to the Floodplain Administrator.

Non-residential buildings get the same 1.5-foot freeboard but may satisfy it by floodproofing instead of elevating, certified by a registered professional engineer or architect. The chapter's definitions section, Sec. 28-2, describes "freeboard" as a safety factor above the base flood elevation applied because of the many unknown factors that can push actual flood heights above the calculated base flood. The Board of Commissioners designated the Executive Director of the City-County Planning Commission as Floodplain Administrator under Sec. 28-4.01. Violating the freeboard standard is enforced as a civil offense under Sec.

28-3.08 and 28-3.09, which route penalties to Chapter 27's fine schedule under "Violation of General Development Standards": $100 for a first uncontested offense, $200 for a second and $300 for further offenses, rising to $200, $400 and $600 if contested before the Code Enforcement and Nuisance Board.