Mount Vernon, NY Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

G of the Mount Vernon zoning code, part of Chapter 267's general Miscellaneous Provisions in Article IV, is the city's local trigger for floodplain development: no structure may be erected in a designated floodplain until it complies with the flood hazard protection requirements. The zoning chapter does not restate the technical flood standards itself; it cross-references the flood hazard determination process the Code Enforcement Officer carries out under § 102-14, Climatic and geographic design criteria, which requires identifying flood hazard areas using, at minimum, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Flood Insurance Study for Mount Vernon, the accompanying Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), and the Flood Boundary and Floodway Map (FBFM), plus any revisions to that data.

The Code Enforcement Officer keeps a written record of those flood hazard determinations on file and available to the public in that office. G sits in the zoning code rather than the building code, it operates as a permit gate: the Building Department will not approve construction plans for a floodplain parcel until the applicant's site plan, required under Chapter 267, Article VII, shows compliance, and the substantive elevation and floodproofing standards themselves come from the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code as administered locally through Chapter 102.

A property owner in a mapped flood hazard area should expect the Building Department to request FIRM panel data before issuing a permit for any new structure.