Bell County, TX Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

14 of the Bell County Subdivision Regulations sets the freeboard standard the County Engineer checks on every final plat that includes a Special Flood Hazard Area. Once a subdivision has an identified SFHA, the plat must show a permanent elevation benchmark, its location, description, and surveyed elevation, and that benchmark has to be tied into a benchmark shown on the effective FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map panel for Bell County. From that benchmark, the plat must state the minimum first floor elevation for buildings on each lot touching the flood hazard area, and that elevation has to sit at least one foot above the elevation of the flood plain, one foot of freeboard above the mapped level.

Where the flood study identifies an actual floodway, not just the broader flood plain, the plat has to label the floodway separately and carry a notation that no structures or improvements will be permitted inside it at all, a stricter no-build rule than the one-foot freeboard that applies to the rest of the SFHA. Because Bell County has no building code or zoning authority, this elevation requirement is enforced at the platting stage, through the Commissioners Court's approval of the final plat, rather than through a construction permit inspection; a builder later relies on the elevation already recorded on the filed plat when siting a foundation.