Franklin County, NC Hurricane Preparedness: Flood Elevation (2026)

The Unified Development Code's Flood Damage Prevention article defines the standard a builder must hit before Planning and Inspections, acting as Floodplain Administrator, will sign off on a floodplain development permit. Section 9.2.2 defines the Regulatory Flood Protection Elevation as the Base Flood Elevation plus a 4-foot freeboard in any Special Flood Hazard Area where FEMA has published a BFE, or at least 4 feet above the highest adjacent grade where no BFE exists. Section 9.2.5(B)(1) then applies that number directly to homes: new construction or substantial improvement of any residential structure, including a manufactured home, must have its reference level, including any basement, elevated no lower than the Regulatory Flood Protection Elevation.

A nonresidential structure faces the same elevation requirement under § 9.2.5(B)(2), though it may instead be floodproofed to that same elevation if a registered professional engineer or architect certifies that the design keeps the structure watertight against hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads. Before construction, an applicant must submit a plot plan certified by a surveyor or engineer showing the proposed elevation relative to NAVD 1988, and after construction, a Finished Construction Elevation Certificate, FEMA Form 086-0-33, must be filed with the Floodplain Administrator before a Certificate of Occupancy is issued; deficiencies must be corrected before that certificate can be released.

The freeboard requirement exists on top of, not instead of, whatever FEMA's mapped Base Flood Elevation already calls for, so a homeowner rebuilding after storm damage in a mapped hazard area needs to build 4 feet higher than the FEMA number, not just to it.