Taunton, MA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Article XIII of the Zoning Ordinance creates the Floodplain Overlay District at § 440-1306.B, covering every Zone A and AE special flood hazard area shown on the Bristol County Flood Insurance Rate Maps dated July 6, 2021, with boundaries pinned to the FIRM's 1% annual chance base flood elevations and further defined in the July 6, 2021 Flood Insurance Study. Those maps and the FIS report are incorporated into the ordinance by reference and kept on file at the City Engineering Office.

Subsection D requires a permit for essentially anything built or altered in the overlay: new construction, changes to existing buildings, manufactured homes, agricultural facilities, fences, sheds, storage facilities, and drilling, mining or paving that could raise flood risk to other properties. Subsection E puts the burden on the applicant to obtain every local, state and federal permit the project needs and to prove it. Subsection K then ties the permit to the base flood elevation directly: the permit plan must show the flood zone boundary and its BFE, and once construction is done the owner must submit a completed, sealed and signed FEMA elevation certificate (FEMA Form 086-0-33 or the latest version) with the as-built site plan before the City will issue a certificate of occupancy. Where FEMA has not mapped a floodway (an 'unnumbered A zone'), § 440-1306.G directs the Building Department to pull the best available federal, state or local data itself to set elevation and floodway criteria. The City Engineer, per § 440-1308, is the designated floodplain administrator, and § 440-1311 provides that these floodplain rules override any conflicting, less restrictive local law.