Bellingham, WA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

BMC Chapter 17.76 is the city's NFIP-implementing floodplain ordinance, and BMC 17.76.030 'Basis for establishing the areas of special flood hazard' adopts by reference 'The Flood Insurance Study for Whatcom County, Washington and Incorporated Areas' dated January 18, 2019, with the accompanying FIRM panels, with the Flood Insurance Study and FIRM on file at the City of Bellingham Permit Center, 210 Lottie Street. BMC Chapter 16.55 (Critical Areas) implements the Growth Management Act under RCW 36.70A.060 by designating five categories of critical areas — 'frequently flooded areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, wetlands, geologically hazardous areas, and areas with a critical recharging effect on aquifers' (the last category does not occur in city limits). BMC 16.55.370 'Designation of frequently flooded areas' specifies that frequently flooded areas include 'lands in which the floodplain is subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year and those lands that provide important flood storage, conveyance, channel forming processes and attenuation functions.' Classifications include 'at a minimum, the 100-year floodplain designations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Flood Insurance Program.' Critical-facility siting standards in BMC 17.76 require that critical facilities should be located outside the SFHA when possible, and if constructed within the SFHA, must have the lowest floor elevated three feet above base flood elevation or to the height of the 500-year flood, whichever is higher. Shoreline jurisdiction under BMC Title 22 (Shoreline Master Program) and RCW 90.58 (Shoreline Management Act) also covers Bellingham Bay, Lake Whatcom, Lake Padden, Squalicum, Whatcom and Chuckanut Creeks, and the tidally-influenced portion of Padden Creek up to McKenzie Avenue.