Adair County, IA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Ordinance No. 37, the Floodplain Management Ordinance, uses one map for the whole county: the areas designated as Zone A on the Flood Insurance Rate Map for Adair County, dated April 5, 2017, which the ordinance adopts as part of itself. The posted copy prints no adoption date; its date line is left blank, but the county posts it as its floodplain ordinance. Boundaries are found by scaling distances on the official map. When the exact location of a boundary is in question, the Floodplain Administrator makes the interpretation, and the Board of Supervisors hears and decides appeals alleging an error in a requirement, decision or determination by the Administrator.

Where 100-year flood elevations and floodway data are not shown on the map, Section III directs that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources be contacted to compute them, and the applicant is responsible for giving the Department sufficient technical information. All development in a flood hazard area must be consistent with the need to minimize flood damage, use construction methods and practices that minimize flood damage, use materials and utility equipment resistant to flood damage, and obtain all other necessary permits.

Other Section III standards cover fully enclosed areas below the lowest floor (a minimum of two openings, with the bottoms no higher than one foot above grade), anchoring against flotation, storage of flammable or explosive materials, recreational vehicles that stay on site less than 180 consecutive days, and buried pipeline stream crossings. Section V lets a lawful nonconforming use continue but ends that right after six consecutive months of discontinuance, and bars rebuilding a destroyed nonconforming structure when the cost exceeds 50 percent of its market value unless the work conforms. Section VII requires prior approval of the Department of Natural Resources for any amendment to the ordinance.