Weston, FL Hurricane Preparedness: Flood Elevation (2026)

Section 64.08 of the Weston Code, last amended by Ordinance 2024-10 on June 3, 2024, adopts the Flood Insurance Study for Broward County, Florida and Incorporated Areas, dated July 31, 2024, and the accompanying Flood Insurance Rate Maps, including all subsequent amendments, as the minimum basis for establishing flood hazard areas citywide; those studies and maps are kept on file at the City Clerk's Office in City Hall. Section 64.09 lets the Floodplain Administrator go beyond the FEMA maps when better data exists: where a Florida-licensed surveyor's field topography, or digital topography the City accepts, shows that ground elevations sit below the closest applicable base flood elevation, the property is treated as a flood hazard area and subject to Chapter 64 and the Florida Building Code, even if the FEMA map does not show a special flood hazard area there.

The reverse also applies: if surveyed ground sits above the applicable base flood elevation, the code still allows the area to be regulated as a flood hazard area unless the property owner obtains a Letter of Map Change removing it from the special flood hazard designation, a FEMA process, not an automatic exemption. Because Chapter 64 exists to keep Weston eligible for the National Flood Insurance Program, these elevation determinations directly affect whether federally backed flood insurance is required for a mortgage and what elevation new construction must meet under the Building Code standards referenced in § 64.03.