Chapel Hill, NC Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Chapel Hill Code of Ordinances § 5-54 defines the town's 'regulatory flood protection elevation' as the base flood elevation plus two feet of freeboard, the extra safety margin layered onto the base flood elevation set in the FEMA flood insurance study. Section 5-60 turns that definition into a build standard: new construction and substantial improvement of any residential structure, including manufactured homes, must have its reference level, including the basement, elevated no lower than the regulatory flood protection elevation. Nonresidential structures face the same elevation requirement under section 5-60(2), though they may instead be floodproofed to that same elevation if a registered professional engineer or architect certifies the design as watertight and structurally capable of resisting hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads.

The floodplain administrator, a role assigned to the town manager under section 5-57, reviews every development permit application in the special flood hazard area, verifies and records the elevation of the reference level of new or substantially improved structures, and can order stop-work when construction proceeds without compliance. Applicants must submit plot plans certified by a registered land surveyor or engineer showing the proposed elevation in relation to mean sea level under section 5-64. The rule applies inside the town limits and within Chapel Hill's extraterritorial jurisdiction in both Orange and Durham counties, per the October 19, 2018 flood insurance studies for each county adopted by reference in section 5-56.