FEMA, ICC release updated guide on integrating I-Codes into floodplain management regulations

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the International Code Council have released an updated guide on integrating I-Codes into floodplain management regulatory processes related to structures, buildings, and other development.

The document is intended to help state and local officials integrate the I-Codes into their floodplain management regulatory processes to satisfy the requirements to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. The benefits of coordinating building codes and floodplain management regulations include reduced duplication and conflict between requirements and improved, consistent, and thorough review, permitting, and enforcement processes.

The guide provides a series of questions that states and communities should answer to know whether and how to modify existing floodplain management regulations to coordinate with building codes. It shows how to incorporate higher standards in state and local building codes that are based on the I-Codes to increase building and community resilience to flood damage.

The document also contains model code-coordinated ordinances prepared by FEMA.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.