Tampa, FL Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

221, part of Article III's Division 1 limitations on floodplain development, draws a hard line: 'No new development, expansion of existing buildings, or fill shall be permitted' within the 100-year floodway, the 25-year floodway, isolated wetlands, or environmentally sensitive areas designated as preservation areas on the city's future land use map. The only exception covers floodplain maintenance and improvement projects that serve the public, bank stabilization, drainage improvements, habitat restoration, and park or preserve projects, and even those must keep ground-contour disturbance minimal and satisfy the floodway setback in Sec.

223. That companion setback bars encroachments, including fill or structures, within a distance from the stream bank equal to three times the stream's width at the top of bank, or 20 feet, whichever is greater, unless a registered professional engineer certifies no increase in flood levels during the base flood. Outside the floodway but still in the floodplain, Sec. 222 allows development if 'compensatory excavation' offsets it, excavation between the seasonal high-water level and the base flood elevation that becomes part of the floodplain rather than being cut off by a culvert or channel, subject to engineering studies proving the excavation hydraulically balances the fill or construction.

The floodplain administrator can waive compensatory excavation only if the applicant proves the work outside the floodway causes no adverse effects. Together these sections mean a floodway parcel in Tampa is effectively off-limits to private construction, while adjacent floodplain land can be developed only with an engineered excavation trade-off reviewed under the floodplain development permit process.