Orange County, FL Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Chapter 19 of the Orange County Code sets the county's floodplain management program, and Article II, Division 4 fixes the elevation standard for manufactured homes. Under Section 19-114, any manufactured home that is placed, replaced, or substantially improved in a flood hazard area must have the bottom of its frame at or above 48 inches above grade, or base flood elevation (BFE) plus one foot of freeboard, whichever produces the higher floor. BFE itself is defined in Section 19-5 as the elevation of the base flood, including wave height, relative to the datum shown on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map.

The same one-foot-above-BFE freeboard standard recurs elsewhere in the chapter: accessory structures below BFE (Section 19-92) must still keep mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems at BFE plus one foot, and agricultural structures granted a wet-floodproofing variance (Section 19-70(2)) must elevate utility equipment the same one foot above BFE. 2 (Section 19-115). A property owner who cannot meet the elevation standard may apply to the Development Review Committee (DRC) for a variance. Before granting one, Section 19-69(4) requires the Floodplain Administrator to give written notice stating the gap between BFE and the proposed lower floor elevation and warning that federal flood insurance premiums rise accordingly, up to $25 per $100 of coverage.

This rule applies only in the unincorporated county; manufactured homes inside Orlando, Winter Park, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Maitland and the county's other municipalities fall under each city's own floodplain code, not Chapter 19.