East Baton Rouge Parish, LA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

East Baton Rouge Parish ties its lowest-floor elevation rule to the International Building Code rather than setting its own freeboard number in the parish code. Sec. 5 of the International Building Code shall be submitted to the building official. That means construction on a flood-hazard lot must stop at the lowest floor until the certified elevation is filed and accepted; only then can framing continue. Sec. 5 of the International Building Code or applicable flood hazard provisions of the International Residential Code shall be submitted to the building official prior to issuance of the certificate of occupancy, so a project cannot get its occupancy sign-off without a second, confirming elevation submittal.

Which lots count as flood hazard areas in the first place is set by Sec. 15:7 of Title 15, which points to the areas of special flood hazard identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a scientific and engineering report entitled The Flood Insurance Study for East Baton Rouge Parish, Baton Rouge and Vicinity, dated May 17, 1993, with accompanying flood insurance rate maps and flood boundary-floodway maps, and lets the floodplain administrator resolve any conflict between a mapped boundary and actual field conditions.

The parish code does not print a numeric freeboard figure itself; that number sits inside IBC Sec. 5, which the ordinance adopts by cross-reference rather than restating.