Stonecrest, GA Hurricane Preparedness: Flood Elevation (2026)

Section 14-436 covers a narrower situation than the article's general elevation rule: a residential single-lot development, not part of a subdivision, on a stream where no base flood or floodway data exists (an unstudied 'A-zone'). The floodplain coordinator first must check available scientific or historic flood elevation data from any federal, state, local or other source before falling back on the article's default numbers. Where no such data exists, § 14-436(b) sets two independent standards. First, no encroachment, including structures or fill material, may be placed within an area equal to twice the width of the stream or 50 feet from the top of the stream bank, whichever distance is greater, giving wider streams a proportionally wider no-build buffer rather than a flat setback.

Second, new construction and substantial improvements of existing structures must have the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area, including any basement, elevated no less than three feet above the highest adjacent grade at the building site, with openings needed to equalize hydrostatic flood forces provided consistent with § 14-428. Because this section stands in for a formal base flood elevation study on data-poor streams, it functions as Stonecrest's fallback flood-elevation and setback rule for residential lots along smaller, unmapped waterways, a situation more likely along the city's Arabia Mountain-area streams than on its larger studied floodplains near the I-20 corridor.