Schaumburg, IL Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

02 as the base flood, also called the 100-year frequency flood, plus two feet of freeboard at any given location in the special flood hazard area (SFHA). 05 pins the base flood elevation (BFE) itself to the countywide Flood Insurance Study for Cook County, dated January 23, 2026, and for DuPage County, dated August 1, 2019, both prepared by FEMA, using named FIRM panel numbers for each county. Where no BFE is available for a site, the director of engineering and public works falls back to the best existing data in the Illinois State Water Survey's Floodplain Information Repository, and for undetermined A-zone sites, engineers must run a backwater model such as HEC-II, WSP-2 or HEC-I to calculate one.

09(C) then makes the FPE the actual construction floor: every building in the SFHA must be protected below the FPE, and for a residential or non-residential building elevated on fill, permanently open foundations, piles or walls, the lowest floor including the basement, plus all electrical, heating, plumbing and air conditioning equipment, must sit at or above the flood protection elevation. Fill placed to raise a site must be laid in one-foot compacted layers and extend at least ten feet beyond the foundation before sloping below the FPE.

A structural alteration that increases first-floor area more than 20% or building value more than 50% triggers these same standards. Only a registered professional engineer's dry-floodproofing certification can substitute for elevation, and only for non-residential buildings; recreational vehicles are barred from the floodplain outright. The chapter was last amended by Ordinance 26-006, passed January 13, 2026, which updated the county study dates.