§ 159.03. Definitions

For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions are adopted:

(A) "Building:" See "Structure."

(B) "Development" means any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate including but not limited to:

(1) Construction, reconstruction, or placement of a building or any addition to a building valued at more than $1,000.00;

(2) Installing a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for a manufactured home or installing a recreational vehicle on a site for more than 180 days provided such recreational vehicle is in compliance with all local laws;

(3) Installing utilities, erection of walls and fences, construction of roads, or similar projects;

(4) Construction of flood control structures such as levees, dikes, dams, channel improvements, etc.;

(5) Mining, dredging, filling, grading, excavation, or drilling operations;

(6) Construction and/or reconstruction of bridges or culverts;

(7) Storage of materials; or

(8) Any other activity that might change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface waters.

"Development" does not include activities such as the maintenance of existing buildings and facilities such as painting, reroofing; resurfacing roads; or gardening, plowing, and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling, grading, excavation, or the construction of permanent buildings.

(C) "Existing manufactured home park/subdivision" means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed before the effective date of this chapter.

(D) "Expansion to an existing manufactured home park/subdivision:" means the preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads).

(E) "FBFM" means flood boundary and floodway map.

(F) "FEMA" means Federal Emergency Management Agency.

(G) "FHBM" means flood hazard boundary map.

(H) "FIRM" means flood insurance rate map.

(I) "Flood" means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow, the unusual and rapid accumulation, or the runoff of surface waters from any source.

(J) "Floodplain" means the channel proper and the areas adjoining any wetland, lake or watercourse which have been or hereafter may be covered by the regulatory flood. The floodplain includes both the floodway and the floodway fringe districts.

(K) "Flood protection grade" or the "FPG" means the elevation of the regulatory flood plus two feet at any given location in the special flood hazard area (SFHA).

(L) "Floodway" means the channel of a river or stream and those portions of the floodplains adjoining the channel which are reasonably required to efficiently carry and discharge the peak flood flow of the regulatory flood of any river or stream.

(M) "Floodway fringe" means those portions of the floodplain lying outside the floodway.

(N) "Letter of map amendment (LOMA)" means an amendment to the currently effective FEMA map that establishes that a property is not located in a special flood hazard area (SFHA). A LOMA is only issued by FEMA.

(O) "Letter of map revision (LOMR)" means an official revision to the currently effective FEMA map. It is issued by FEMA and changes flood zones, delineations and elevations.

(P) "Lowest floor" means the lowest of the following:

(1) The top of the basement floor;

(2) The top of the garage floor, if the garage is the lowest level of the building;

(3) The top of the first floor of buildings elevated on pilings or constructed on a crawl space with permanent openings; or

(4) The top of the floor level of any enclosure below an elevated building where the walls of the enclosure provide any resistance to the flow of flood waters unless:

(a) The walls are designed to automatically equalize the hydrostatic flood forces on the walls by allowing for the entry and exit of flood waters, by providing a minimum of two openings (in addition to doorways and windows) having a total area of one square foot for every two square feet of enclosed area subject to flooding. The bottom of all such openings shall be no higher than one foot above grade.

(b) Such enclosed space shall be usable for the parking of vehicles and building access.

(Q) "Manufactured home" means a dwelling unit fabricated on or after June 15, 1976, in an off-site manufacturing facility for installation or assembly at the building site, bearing a seal certifying that it is built in compliance with Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Code or Indiana Public Law 360, Acts of 1971; also refers to modular home. The term "manufactured home" does not include a "recreational vehicle."

(R) "Mobile home" means a transportable dwelling unit larger than eight feet in body width and longer than 32 feet in body length and designed to be used as a year-round dwelling unit, built prior to June 15, 1976. For the purposes of this chapter only, when the term "manufactured home" is used herein, it shall also refer to a mobile home.

(S) "New manufactured home park/subdivision" means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after the effective date of this chapter.

(T) "Recreational vehicle" means any portable vehicular structure not built to the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Code, designed to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use, including but not limited to travel trailers, collapsible trailers, truck campers, motor homes and multi-use vans; they are intended for temporary residential uses and shall be occupied only in RV parks.

(U) "Regulatory flood" means the flood having a one percent probability of being equalled or exceeded in any given year, as calculated by a method and procedure which is acceptable to and approved by the Indiana Natural Resources Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The regulatory flood elevation at any location is as defined in section 159.05 of this chapter. The "regulatory flood" is also known by the term "base flood." Both terms are, currently, known as the "100-year flood."

(V) "SFHA or special flood hazard area" means those lands within the jurisdiction of Muncie, Indiana, that are subject to inundation by the regulatory flood. The SFHAs of Muncie, Indiana, are generally identified as such on the flood insurance rate map (FIRM) of the City of Muncie, Indiana, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated December 3, 1987. The SFHAs of those parts of unincorporated Delaware County that are within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city or that may be annexed into the city are generally identified as such on the flood insurance rate map prepared for Delaware County by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and dated December 3, 1987.

(W) "Structure" means a structure that is principally above ground and is enclosed by walls and a roof. The term includes a gas or liquid storage tank, a manufactured home, or a prefabricated building. The term also includes recreational vehicles and travel trailers to be installed on a site for more than 180 days provided such installation is in compliance with all local laws.

(X) "Substantial improvement" means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the "start of construction" of the improvement. This term includes structures which have incurred "substantial damage" regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not include improvements of structures to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code requirements or any alteration of a "historic structure", provided that the alteration will not preclude the structures continued designation as a "historic structure".

(Y) "Zone A" means a special flood hazard area inundated by the 100-year flood, determined by approximate methods, where no base flood elevations are shown on the FIRM or flood hazard factors are determined.

(Z) "Zone A1—A7" means special flood hazard areas inundated by the 100-year flood, determined by detailed methods, where base flood elevations are shown on the FIRM and zones are subdivided according to flood hazard factor.

(Ord. No. 60-94, § 1, 11-14-94)