Pottstown, PA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Chapter 8, Part 3, Section 302 defines 'regulatory flood elevation' as the elevation to which development is regulated for elevation and dry floodproofing purposes, and fixes it as the base flood elevation (BFE) plus a freeboard of 1 1/2 feet, that is, one foot six inches of extra height above the FEMA-mapped one-percent-annual-chance flood level. Section 702, Elevation and Floodproofing Requirements, applies that standard directly: in AE Zones, any new construction or substantial improvement of a residential structure must have its lowest floor, including any basement, elevated up to or above the regulatory flood elevation, built to the specifications of the applicable International Building Code, International Residential Code, ASCE 24 and 34 Pa.

Code Chapters 401 through 405. In A Zones, where the FIRM does not print a base flood elevation, the same lowest-floor elevation is measured against a regulatory flood elevation the Borough determines under Section 402D using the nearest available floodplain boundary point or a licensed engineer's hydrologic and hydraulic study. 5-foot freeboard target, or may instead be dry-floodproofed watertight and built to resist hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads under the Army Corps of Engineers' W1 or W2 space classification standards, certified by a registered engineer or architect.

The same freeboard figure recurs elsewhere in the chapter: Section 501G requires brownfield redevelopment structures in the floodplain to sit 1 1/2 feet above the flood elevation, and Section 504A requires any expansion or enlargement of an existing structure to be built at that same 1 1/2-foot elevation above base flood elevation.