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

Chapter 9 of the Rowan County Code, the Flood Damage Prevention ordinance, sets the numeric elevation standard that governs every building permit issued in a mapped floodplain. Sec. 9-5 defines 'base flood elevation (BFE)' as a determination of the water surface elevations of the base flood published in the flood insurance study, drawn from the November 16, 2018 Flood Insurance Study for Rowan County adopted by reference in Sec. 9-7. The same section defines 'regulatory flood protection elevation' as the BFE plus a freeboard: where BFE has been determined, the regulatory elevation is BFE plus two feet; where no BFE exists, it is at least two feet above the highest adjacent grade.

Sec. 9-52(1) then applies that standard, requiring new residential construction, including manufactured homes, to have its reference level, including any basement, elevated no lower than the regulatory flood protection elevation. Sec. 9-32 requires an elevation certificate on FEMA Form 086-0-33 before construction starts, again within seven days of the reference level being set, and a final as-built certificate before occupancy is granted. The Director of Planning and Development, acting as floodplain administrator under Sec. 9-31, reviews each certificate and can issue a stop-work order if the elevation data is deficient.

Building below the regulatory flood protection elevation without a variance is a violation under Sec. 9-13, and property built below base flood elevation under a variance faces flood insurance premiums that can rise up to twenty-five dollars per hundred dollars of coverage, a warning the floodplain administrator must give in writing under Sec. 9-35(7).