08/17/2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Construction Control Line (CCCL), the State of Florida has specific criteria and minimum elevations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also has regulations relating to the national flood insurance program, with minimum elevations in areas subject to 100-year floods. The County adds 6 inches to these minimum elevations to help us obtain additional points and lower our flood insurance premiums. The Department of Health also has elevation regulations when septic tanks are used. Finally, the County has drainage requirements which cannot be changed. Most problems arise in older subdivisions with homes built prior to a number of these regulations becoming viable. Newer homes have to be built at much higher elevations than homes that were built 20, 30 or 40 years ago. These elevations are all reviewed by the Engineering Department to make certain the drainage is adequate and will not flood adjacent lots. Most of the problems seem to be aesthetic and are expressed when people see truckloads of fill being unloaded next to their homes. The County cannot change the regulations but there are things that can be done to resolve the problems. The County has a requirement that minimum slope requirements must be met when fill is put on a lot and the slope cannot be steeper than 4-to-1 vertical. Another requirement is that stormwater has to be kept on site or in a common drainage swale. The owner can also put in a retaining wall at the property line or within the lot, or use stem wall construction so the fill does not need to be sloped to the property line. Stem wall construction differs from slab on grade in that the structural component of the house is not dependent on fill. Essentially the stem wall is a block structure that the finished floor sits on and, therefore, the lot does not need to be filled. Another alternative would be a pile structure where the building needs to be elevated because of the septic tank drainfield. Director Keating continued that one of the issues in this matter is fence height. The definition of the allowed height is in the LDRs where it states that the “height of walls and fences shall be the vertical distance from the grade of the lot at the wall or fence location to the top of the wall.” To prevent the homeowner from berming the property and putting the fence on top of the berm, the LDRs continue ”If the wall or fence is to be located on a berm or fill added above the finished lot grade, then the height of the berm or added fill shall be included in the height of the wall or fence.” AUGUST 17, 2004 24