Lakewood, WA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

50, Article I of the Lakewood Municipal Code establishes the city's Flood Hazard Overlay (FHO) over all areas of special flood hazard identified on FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps and the Flood Insurance Study for Pierce County, dated March 7, 2017. 030, anyone building, filling, or developing within the Regulatory Floodplain needs both a building permit and a floodplain development agreement, applied for on city forms with a scaled site plan showing the ten, fifty, one hundred and five hundred year flood elevations, the floodway and channel migration area boundaries, and any water bodies within 300 feet of the site.

070 sets the actual construction standards: all new construction and substantial improvements must be anchored against flotation and built with flood-resistant materials, residential structures must elevate the lowest floor, including any basement, at least one foot above the base flood elevation, and nonresidential buildings may instead be flood-proofed watertight to that same level. Manufactured homes need tie-down systems capable of resisting 4,800 pounds of force. Inside the mapped floodway, the highest-hazard zone, new fill, construction and substantial improvements are barred outright except for narrow carve-outs such as minor repairs that do not enlarge a structure's footprint or work on a National Register historic building.

Critical facilities built in the 100-year floodplain must clear the base flood elevation by three feet. 060 lets the City grant a variance only on a showing of good cause and exceptional hardship, an authorization that expires after six months unless construction has started, with one six-month extension available at the Director's discretion. This overlay is separate from, and does not replace, the city's Shoreline Master Program under LMC Title 16 for lakefront parcels on American Lake or Gravelly Lake.