Haverhill, MA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Sections 9.1.2 and 9.1.5 of the Haverhill Zoning Ordinance fill the gap FEMA leaves in Zone A, the portion of the Floodplain Overlay District where the Flood Insurance Rate Map shows flood risk but does not print a specific base flood elevation or floodway boundary. Section 9.1.2 directs the building department to obtain, review and reasonably use whatever base flood elevation and floodway data is available from a federal, state or other source, and to apply that data both as the basis for elevating residential structures to or above base flood level and for floodproofing or elevating nonresidential structures, and for prohibiting encroachments in floodways.

Section 9.1.5 reinforces the same approach along watercourses in Zones A and AE that have no regulatory floodway designated on the Essex County FIRM: the city must use the best available federal, state, local or other floodway data to block encroachments that would raise flood levels during the base flood discharge. The section also places an affirmative burden on larger projects: any subdivision or other development greater than 50 lots or five acres, whichever is the smaller threshold, within an unnumbered A zone must generate its own base flood elevation data as part of the application. Section 9.1.9.2 separately requires the city to notify FEMA within six months if it acquires data that changes a mapped base flood elevation, submitting the supporting technical or scientific data to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and FEMA's Region I office.