BROOKINGS — A move to update the floodplain ordinance in Brookings will be voted on at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, something that must be done if the city wants its residents to have continued access to the National Flood Insurance Program.

The genesis behind the vote is the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is finally finishing its years-long effort to update information in Brookings — the process started in 2016 — and the update needs to be in place no later than April 23. The information currently on file dates to 2008.

It’s important because the new FEMA map has adjusted the floodway and floodplain areas that would impact Brookings if worst-case flooding ever occurred — those 100-year kind of events.

“These changes, primarily the widening of the floodway up in the northwest, has affected additional properties,” Public Works Director John Thompson told councilors at the March 11 City Council meeting. “The newly widened floodway and modified floodplain does impact several properties. … These property owners have been directly contacted by staff so they can work with their engineer and FEMA.”

He said he believes 12 properties have been affected by the new changes, including some who previously worked with FEMA to get their property out of the floodplain. Of those 12, a couple ended up moving from the floodplain into the floodway itself, which means they’ll have to do additional work with FEMA to get back out of the floodway or floodplain.

Councilor Holly Tilton-Byrne subsequently asked about the differences between a floodplain and a floodway.

Assistant City Engineer Thad Drietz said a floodplain is the horizontal extent of flooding that can be expected in a 100-year/1% chance of a flood. The floodway itself is found within the floodplain — it’s the area that has to be left free so water can flow. If you start to restrict that area, you’re going to raise the base flood elevation, thereby increasing the size of the floodplain.

“When they define a floodway, there’s more restrictions,” he said. “You can’t put anything that will block it, unless … you have an engineer come in and do a hydrological model and make sure that whatever you’re placing in the floodway is not going to raise the floodplain.”

Thompson added that some of the previously mentioned 12 properties, particularly in the southern portion of the city, are now in the 100-year floodplain with the 2025 map, whereas they weren’t before with the 2008 map. Essentially, that means they will now require flood insurance if they have a mortgage.

Sure, the city could decide not to ensure its continued participation in the National Flood Insurance Program, but odds are residents wouldn’t appreciate it one bit.

“If the city elected not to participate in the NFIP, property owners within the flood-prone areas would likely not be able to purchase private flood insurance,” Thompson explained. “If they did find a willing insurance carrier, the cost of that insurance would likely be significantly higher than any federally subsidized NFIP rates.”

He noted that the proposed ordinance’s purpose is simple — it’s designed to help reduce losses along with promoting public health, safety and the general welfare of the city and its residents and to minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions.

“It applies to all areas of special flood hazard identified by FEMA within the city limits,” he said.

Furthermore, Thompson detailed how the ordinance would reduce losses resulting from flooding, ticking off a list including:

• It restricts or prohibits land uses that are dangerous to health, safety or property in times of flooding.
• It requires land uses vulnerable to flooding, including facilities, be protected against flood damage at the time of construction.
• It includes the legal ability to control the alteration of natural flood plains, stream channels and natural protective barriers which are involved in the accumulation of floodwaters.
• It includes the legal ability to control filling, grading, dredging and other developments that may cause increase in flood damage.
• It prevents or regulates the construction of flood barriers that will unnaturally divert floodwater or cause hazards to other lands.

Councilors will discuss this issue, along with other topics, at their regular meeting on Tuesday in the Council Chambers, which starts at 6 p.m. in the Brookings City & County Government Center, 520 Third St.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.