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

Section 18-5 defines freeboard as the height added to the base flood elevation (BFE) to cover unknown factors, wave action, bridge or culvert blockage, storm surge, or urbanization effects, that can push actual flood heights above the calculated base flood. The same section defines regulatory flood protection elevation (RFPE) as the BFE plus that freeboard: where a BFE has been determined for a special flood hazard area, the RFPE is the BFE plus two feet of freeboard; where no BFE has been established, the RFPE is at least two feet above the highest adjacent grade.

Section 18-41(1) then applies that standard directly to housing: new construction or substantial improvement of any residential structure, including manufactured homes, must have its reference level, including any basement, elevated no lower than the regulatory flood protection elevation. Section 18-41(2) extends a comparable rule to nonresidential structures, which may floodproof to the RFPE instead of elevating, provided a registered professional engineer or architect certifies the floodproofing meets the chapter's watertight and structural-load standards. Manufactured homes get their own anchoring detail in § 18-41(3): homes elevated 36 inches or less above grade need reinforced piers or equivalent foundation elements, while homes elevated above 36 inches require an engineered foundation certification.

Applicants prove compliance with a preliminary elevation certificate before construction starts and a final as-built elevation certificate, both on FEMA Form 086-0-33, submitted to the floodplain administrator under § 18-26(3) before a certificate of occupancy issues.