Durham County, NC Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

S. Chapter 143 Article 21 Part 6 and Chapter 153A authority, Durham County's Flood Damage Protection Ordinance, Code Ch. 5, Art. II, applies wherever FEMA's flood insurance study, dated 1995, and its accompanying maps mark an area of special flood hazard (Secs. 5-32). The board's stated findings are blunt: unregulated flood-hazard development causes loss of life or property and hazards to health and safety, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures of flood protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base. 5-33 requires every development activity in a mapped hazard area to conform to this article's permitting provisions, the zoning ordinance, and all other applicable ordinances before work begins, and Sec.

5-34 bars locating, extending, converting, or structurally altering any structure, or disturbing any land, without full compliance. Where base flood elevation or floodway data haven't been mapped, the local administrator can require engineering studies or pull elevation data from any federal or state source (Sec. 5-32(b)). The ordinance is a floor, not a ceiling: Sec. 5-35 makes the more restrictive rule control whenever this article conflicts with an easement, covenant, deed restriction, or another ordinance, and Sec. 5-36 directs that every provision be read as a minimum requirement, construed liberally in the county's favor.

Sec. 5-37 expressly warns that meeting these standards is no guarantee against flooding, larger floods can and will occur on rare occasions, and the county disclaims liability for damage from reliance on the ordinance or on any administrative decision made under it.