Our project is an educational center adjacent to a wetlands area. The question regards the site selection point, which includes five different criteria. One of these is to locate 100\' from a wetland, which we have done. Another is to avoid "land whose elevation is lower than 5 feet above the elevation of the 100-year floodplains as defined by FEMA". The building site for our project straddles the contour line that defines this 5\' limit above the flood plain. The question is: is any cut and fill allowable to meet the stated goal? Specifically, we are proposing that: (1) cut and fill would be balanced so that there would be no change in the function of the flood storage zone five feet above the plain, and: (2) there would be no change at all - no cut or fill - to the flood plain itself, only to the zone defined by this five foot line. In our mind, this addresses the concern that flood plains not be manipulated and that flood water not be displaced offsite.
The Credit Ruling Committee has ruled that the 5\' ABOVE floodplain requirement should apply to the building footprint only, not the site as a whole. Balanced cut and fill could be used to help you achieve this elevation, as long as it did not impact the 100 year floodplain itself. Contour map lines usually represent approximate elevations and therefore are unreliable in establishing a flood zone elevation unless the contour lines are on official flood zone maps. The FEMA reference standard states that the flood elevation is "determined through hydrologic and hydraulic modeling," so be sure your project is using the appropriate maps for determining the flood elevations. These should be available from the county planning office or FEMA. If it can be determined that your project site lies within a different FEMA flood zone, such as Flood Zone X that is protected by levees, you could be eligible.