Hamden, CT Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Section 155.01 finds that the town's Special Flood Hazard Areas, mapped on FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Map, are subject to periodic inundation that threatens life, property, commerce and the tax base, caused by the cumulative effect of obstructions and uses that are inadequately anchored, flood proofed or elevated. Section 155.02 sets eight purposes for the chapter, from protecting human life and minimizing public flood-control spending to notifying buyers that a property sits in a flood hazard area and making occupants responsible for their own risk.

Section 155.03 puts the Planning and Zoning Commission in charge of administering and implementing the chapter, applying FEMA-mandated flood regulations within the town's zoning regulations. Section 155.04(A) requires the Commission to review every development permit for compliance with the chapter, confirm other required federal, state or local approvals, and check whether the project "adversely affects" the area, defined at § 155.04(A)(4) as raising the cumulative base flood water surface elevation more than one foot at any point. Section 155.04(C) requires the Commission to obtain and record the actual elevation of the lowest habitable floor of new or substantially improved structures, and § 155.04(D) requires notice to adjacent communities and the state Department of Environmental Protection, with evidence sent to FEMA, before any watercourse is altered or relocated.

Section 155.04(E) lets the Commission interpret disputed FIRM boundary lines, and § 155.05 sends any appeal of that interpretation, or of another Commission ruling under the flood regulations, to the Zoning Board of Appeals.