CFR

55.1—Purpose and basic responsibility.

(a) This part implements the requirements of Executive Order 11988, Floodplain Management, and employs the principles of the Unified National Program for Floodplain Management. It covers the proposed acquisition, construction, improvement, disposition, financing and use of properties located in a floodplain for which approval is required either from HUD under any applicable HUD program or from a grant recipient subject to 24 CFR part 58. This part does not prohibit approval of such actions (except for certain actions in high hazard areas), but provides a consistent means for implementing the Department's interpretation of the executive order in the project approval decision making processes of HUD and of grant recipients subject to 24 CFR part 58. The implementation of Executive Order 11988 under this part shall be conducted by HUD, for Department-administered programs subject to environmental review under 24 CFR part 50, and by authorized recipients of HUD financial assistance subject to environmental review under 24 CFR part 58.

(b) Under section 202(a) of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, 42 U.S.C. 4106(a), proposed HUD financial assistance (including mortgage insurance) for acquisition or construction purposes in any “area having special flood hazards” (a flood zone designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)) shall not be approved in communities identified by FEMA as eligible for flood insurance but which are not participating in the National Flood Insurance Program. This prohibition only applies to proposed HUD financial assistance in a FEMA-designated area of special flood hazard one year after the community has been formally notified by FEMA of the designation of the affected area. This prohibition is not applicable to HUD financial assistance in the form of formula grants to states, including financial assistance under the State-administered CDBG Program ( 24 CFR part 570, subpart I) and the State-administered Rental Rehabilitation Program ( 24 CFR 511.51 ), Emergency Shelter Grant amounts allocated to States ( 24 CFR parts 575 and 576 ), and HOME funds provided to a state under Title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12701-128 39).

(c) Except with respect to actions listed in § 55.12(c), no HUD financial assistance (including mortgage insurance) may be approved after May 23, 1994 with respect to:

(1) Any action, other than a functionally dependent use, located in a floodway;

(2) Any critical action located in a coastal high hazard area; or

(3) Any non-critical action located in a coastal high hazard area, unless the action is designed for location in a coastal high hazard area or is a functionally dependent use. An action will be considered to be designed for location in a coastal high hazard area if:

(i) In the case of new construction or substantial improvement, the work meets the current standards for V zones in FEMA regulations ( 44 CFR 60.3(e)) and, if applicable, the Minimum Property Standards for such construction in 24 CFR 200.926d(c)(4)(iii); or

(ii) In the case of existing construction (including any minor improvements):

(A) The work met FEMA elevation and construction standards for a coastal high hazard area (or if such a zone or such standards were not designated, the 100-year floodplain) applicable at the time the original improvements were constructed; or

(B) If the original improvements were constructed before FEMA standards for the 100-year floodplain became effective or before FEMA designated the location of the action as within the 100-year floodplain, the work would meet at least the earliest FEMA standards for construction in the 100-year floodplain.

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