Oneida County, WI Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

1(36) as the safety factor that accounts for ice jams, debris, wave action and other causes of flood heights higher than the calculated level. 3(1)(a): in the Floodfringe District, the lowest floor of any new or moved-in residential structure, including a manufactured home, must sit at or above the flood protection elevation on fill, and that fill must extend one foot or more above the regional flood elevation for at least 15 feet beyond the structure's limits. 3(1)(b), a basement or crawlway floor may instead sit at the regional flood elevation only if it is floodproofed up to the flood protection elevation, and no basement or crawlway floor may ever go below the regional flood elevation.

3(1)(c) also requires contiguous dry-land access from the structure to land outside the floodplain, unless the County finds street or sewer elevations make that impractical and receives written assurance that police, fire and emergency services can reach the site by wheeled vehicle during a flood. Because Wis. 69 bars county zoning inside incorporated territory, this two-foot freeboard standard governs new construction in the unincorporated towns; Rhinelander and any village apply their own adopted floodplain ordinance to meet the same FEMA standard.