Carteret County, NC Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Section 7-87, the specific standards of Chapter 7's flood-hazard-reduction article, applies wherever FEMA has published a base flood elevation (BFE) for the parcel, per the maps adopted under Sec. 7-37. Subsection (1) sets the residential rule: new construction and substantial improvement of any residential structure, including manufactured homes, must have the reference level, including any basement, elevated no lower than the regulatory flood protection elevation. Section 7-26 defines that elevation as the BFE plus freeboard, and where no BFE has been established, the standard defaults to at least two feet above the highest adjacent grade.

Subsection (2) extends the same elevation floor to commercial, industrial and other nonresidential structures, but lets the owner floodproof to that elevation instead, provided a registered professional engineer or architect certifies that all areas below it are watertight and can resist hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads; that certification and an operational maintenance plan go to the floodplain administrator under Sec. 7-67(c). AO-zone floodproofing must additionally meet the depth-number standard in Sec. 7-94(2). Manufactured homes get an added anchoring rule in Sec. 7-87(3): the chassis must be supported by reinforced piers or an engineered foundation, and any elevation above 36 inches requires an engineer's certification. Structures in coastal high hazard zones (VE) cannot use floodproofing at all and must meet the stricter pile-and-column standards of Sec. 7-92.