Manitou Springs, CO Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

6, part of the Development in Natural Hazard Areas chapter, states the city's purpose is to promote public health, safety and welfare and minimize public and private losses from flooding by protecting human life and health, minimizing public flood-control spending, limiting business interruption, protecting critical facilities and infrastructure, speeding post-flood cleanup, and educating the public about the risk. The operative applicability rule requires 'adequate floodplain avoidance and/or mitigation' for all development proposed in the floodplain, and that proposal has to be reviewed by the Regional Floodplain Administrator for compliance with federal, state and local floodplain regulations before the city will move it forward.

Rather than restating federal flood standards inside the Land Use and Development Code, Manitou Springs incorporates the Regional Floodplain Regulations as amended, a shared regional instrument, and directs applicants to the office of the Regional Floodplain Administrator for current flood hazard maps. This matters in Manitou Springs specifically because the city sits at the base of the Fountain Creek drainage below the Waldo Canyon burn scar, where the loss of ground cover from the 2012 fire has repeatedly increased flash-flood risk along the creek corridor that runs through the Mixed-Use Commercial and Commercial zone districts.

4 that must protect natural drainage channels and stream corridors, both of which apply alongside the flood hazard review on any site touching Fountain Creek.