Grand Forks, ND Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Grand Forks never drafted its own floodproofing chapter. Section 19-0602 instead adopts "the floodproofing code of the City of Fargo, North Dakota and its Appendix, prepared by Moore Engineering, Incorporation, dated December 10, 1974, and revised December 9, 1975," substituting "City of Grand Forks" for every reference to "City of Fargo," "city council" for "city commission," and "Grand Forks" for "Fargo" throughout the borrowed text, and updating its building-code cross-references to the locally amended Uniform Building Code. Section 19-0601 frames the purpose as complying with "the specific requirements of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973" and preventing "development in flood-prone areas which is incompatible with land subject to frequent periodic inundation," alongside avoiding "loss of life, loss of property, health and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental service, extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief, and impairment of tax base." Amendments to the article cannot take effect until they clear a federal check: § 19-0603 requires that "proposed amendments have been submitted to the federal insurance administration and comments from the same have been received, or sixty (60) days after submittal, whichever is first," with the city engineer responsible for proposing changes when better "hydrologic or topographic data" becomes available, a relevant safeguard for a city on the Red River that flooded catastrophically in 1997.

Enforcement under § 19-0604(2) gives the zoning administrator "the powers of a police officer to prevent the occupancy" of noncompliant property or "to prevent any illegal act, conduct, business or use in or about said premises," on top of any other legal remedy the city pursues.