James City County, VA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

The Zoning Ordinance's Division 3, Floodplain Area Regulations (Sec. 2-2280 to keep the county eligible for the National Flood Insurance Program. Sec. 24-590 splits the mapped floodplain into a floodway district that must stay clear of encroachment so the one percent annual chance flood can pass without raising water levels, a flood-fringe district covering the rest of the AE/AO flood area, an approximated floodplain shown as Zone A where no detailed elevation study exists, Coastal A zones seaward of the Limit of Moderate Wave Action line, and coastal high-hazard V and VE zones subject to wave action over three feet.

The county's minimum mapping basis is the December 16, 2015 Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Map from FEMA, kept on file with the director of community development. Sec. 24-592 requires a floodplain permit for any construction, fill, or manufactured home placement in these districts, folded into whatever subdivision, site plan, rezoning, building or wetlands permit the project already needs; the applicant must show the community development director the work will be reasonably safe from flooding before any permit issues. Sec. 24-594 bars an entire category of uses outright inside the floodplain regardless of the permit: sanitary landfills, junkyards, outdoor storage of inoperative vehicles, manufactured homes, surface mines and borrow pits, bulk storage of petroleum or hazardous materials, and outdoor storage of buoyant, flammable or explosive equipment.

None of those uses may expand even as a legal nonconforming use. Sec. 24-588(e) ties enforcement to the general zoning penalty in Sec. 00, with failure to correct a violation punishable again for each 30-day period it continues.