1. A Zone. See “Special flood hazard area.”

2. AE Zone. See “Special flood hazard area.”

3. AO Zone. See “Special flood hazard area.”

4. “Accessory structure” means a structure that is either:

5. “Agricultural structure” means a walled and roofed structure used exclusively for agricultural purposes or uses in connection with the production, harvesting, storage, airing or drying of agricultural commodities and livestock, including aquatic organisms. Structures that house tools or equipment used in connection with these purposes or uses are also considered to have agricultural purposes or uses.

6. “Alluvial fan” means a geomorphologic feature characterized by a cone- or fan-shaped deposit of boulders, gravel, and fine sediments that have been eroded from mountain slopes, transported by flood flows, and then deposited on the valley floors, and which is subject to flash flooding, high velocity flows, debris flows, erosion, sediment movement and deposition, and channel migration.

7. “Appeal” means a request for a review of the administrator’s interpretation of any provision of this chapter or a request for an exemption.

8. “Apex” means a point on an alluvial fan or similar landform below which the flow path of the major stream that formed the fan becomes unpredictable and alluvial fan flooding can occur.

9. “Area of shallow flooding” means a designated AO, AH or VO zone on the flood insurance rate map (FIRM). The base flood depths range from one to three feet, a clearly defined channel does not exist, the path of flooding is unpredictable and indeterminate, and velocity flow may be evident. Such flooding is characterized by ponding or sheet flow.

10. Area of Special Flood Hazard. See “Special flood hazard area.”

11. “Base flood” means the flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also called the one-hundred-year flood).

12. “Base flood elevation (BFE)” means the elevation shown on the flood insurance rate map for zones AE, AH, A1-30, VE and V1-V30 that indicates the water surface elevation resulting from a flood that has a one percent or greater chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

13. “Basement” means any area of the building having its floor subgrade (below ground level) on all sides.

14. Building. See “Structure.”

15. “Development” means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials.

16. “Encroachment” means the advance or infringement of uses, plant growth, fill, excavation, buildings, permanent structures or development into a floodplain which may impede or alter the flow capacity of a floodplain.

17. “Existing manufactured home park or 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 May 1, 1985, the date which the first flood management ordinance was adopted.

18. “Expansion to an existing manufactured home park or 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).

19. “Flood,” “flooding,” or “floodwater” means:

20. “Flood boundary and floodway map (FBFM)” means the official map on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Federal Insurance Administration has delineated both the areas of special flood hazard and the floodway.

21. “Flood insurance rate map (FIRM)” means the official map on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Federal Insurance Administration has delineated both the areas of special flood hazards and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.

22. “Flood insurance study” means the official report provided by the Federal Insurance Administration that includes flood profiles, the FIRM, the flood boundary and floodway map, and the water surface elevation of the base flood.

23. “Floodplain” or “flood-prone area” means any land area susceptible to being inundated by water from any source (see definition of “flooding”).

24. “Floodplain administrator” means the individual appointed to administer and enforce the floodplain management regulations.

25. “Floodplain management” means the operation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage and preserving and enhancing, where possible, natural resources in the floodplain, including but not limited to emergency preparedness plans, flood control works and floodplain management regulations, and open space plans.

26. “Floodplain management regulations” means zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, building codes, health regulations, special purpose ordinances (such as floodplain ordinance, grading ordinance and erosion control ordinance) and other applications of police power which control development in flood-prone areas. The term describes such state or local regulations, in any combination thereof, which provide standards for the purpose of flood damage prevention and reduction.

27. “Floodproofing” means any combination of structural and nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce or eliminate flood damage to real estate or improved real property, water and sanitary facilities, structures, and their contents. (Refer to NFIP Technical Bulletins TB1, TB2, TB3, and TB7 (2021) for guidelines on dry and wet floodproofing.)

28. “Floodway” means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot. Also referred to as regulatory floodway.

29. “Floodway fringe” means that area of the floodplain on either side of the regulatory floodway where encroachment may be permitted.

30. “Fraud and victimization,” as related to Section 15.74.180, means that the variance granted must not cause fraud on or victimization of the public. In examining this requirement, the city will consider the fact that every newly constructed building adds to government responsibilities and remains a part of the community for fifty to one hundred years. Buildings that are permitted to be constructed below the base flood elevation are subject, during all those years, to increased risk of damage from floods, while future owners of the properties and the community as a whole are subject to all the costs, inconvenience, danger, and suffering that those increased flood damages bring. In addition, future owners may purchase the property, unaware that it is subject to potential flood damage, and can be insured only at very high flood insurance rates.

31. “Functionally dependent use” means a use which cannot perform its intended purpose unless it is located or carried out in close proximity to water. The term includes only docking facilities, port facilities that are necessary for the loading and unloading of cargo or passengers, and ship building and ship repair facilities, and does not include long-term storage or related manufacturing facilities.

32. “Government body” is the city of Bakersfield, which is empowered to adopt and implement regulations to provide for the public health, safety and general welfare of its citizenry.

33. “Hardship” as related in this chapter means the exceptional hardship that would result from a failure to grant the requested variance. The city council requires that the variance be exceptional, unusual, and peculiar to the property involved. Mere economic or financial hardship alone is not exceptional. Inconvenience, aesthetic considerations, physical handicaps, personal preferences, or the disapproval of one’s neighbors likewise cannot, as a rule, qualify as an exceptional hardship. All of these problems can be resolved through other means without granting a variance, even if the alternative is more expensive, or requires the property owner to build elsewhere or put the parcel to a different use than originally intended.

34. “Highest adjacent grade” means the highest natural elevation of the ground surface prior to construction next to the proposed walls of a structure.

35. “Historic structure” means any structure that is:

36. “Levee” means a manmade structure, usually an earthen embankment, designed and constructed in accordance with sound engineering practices to contain, control or divert the flow of water so as to provide protection from temporary flooding.

37. “Levee system” means a flood protection system which consists of a levee, or levees, and associated structures, such as closure and drainage devices, which are constructed and operated in accord with sound engineering practices.

38. “Lowest floor” means the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area (including basement).

39. “Manufactured home” means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities. For floodplain management purposes the term “manufactured home” also includes park trailers, travel trailers and other similar vehicles placed on a site for greater than one hundred eighty consecutive days.

40. “Manufactured home park or subdivision” means a parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two or more manufactured home lots for sale or rent.

41. “Market value” shall be determined by estimating the cost to replace the structure in new condition and adjusting that cost figure by the amount of depreciation which has accrued since the structure was constructed. The cost of replacement of the structure shall be based on a square foot cost factor determined by reference to a building cost estimating guide recognized by the building construction industry. The amount of depreciation shall be determined by taking into account the age and physical deterioration of the structure and functional obsolescence as approved by the floodplain administrator, but shall not include economic or other forms of external obsolescence. Use of replacement costs or accrued depreciation factors different from those contained in recognized building cost estimating guides may be considered only if such factors are included in a report prepared by an independent professional appraiser and supported by a written explanation of the differences.

42. “Mean sea level” means, for purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program, the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD) of 1988, or other datum, to which base flood elevations shown on a community’s flood insurance rate map are referenced.

43. “New construction” means, for floodplain management purposes, structures for which the start of construction commenced on or after May 1, 1985, the effective date of the floodplain management regulation adopted by this community, and includes any subsequent improvement to such structures.

44. “New manufactured home park or 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 May 1, 1985, the effective date of floodplain management regulations adopted by this community.

45. “Obstruction” includes, but is not limited to, any dam, wall, wharf, embankment, levee, dike, pile, abutment, protection, excavation, channelization, bridge, conduit, culvert, building, wire, fence, rock, gravel, refuse, fill, structure, vegetation or other material in, along, across or projecting into any watercourse which may alter, impede, retard or change the direction and/or velocity of the flow of water, or due to its location, its propensity to snare or collect debris carried by the flow of water, or its likelihood of being carried downstream.

46. One-Hundred-Year Flood or 100-Year Flood. See “Base flood.”

47. “Person” means an individual or his agent, firm, partnership, association, or corporation, or agent of the aforementioned groups, or this state or its agencies or political subdivisions.

48. “Program deficiency” means a defect in a community’s floodplain management regulations or administrative procedures that impairs effective implementation of those floodplain management regulations.

49. “Public safety and nuisance,” as related to Section 15.74.180, means that the granting of a variance must not result in anything which is injurious to safety or health of an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any navigable lake, river, bay, stream, canal, or basin.

50. “Recreational vehicle” means a vehicle which is:

51. “Regulatory floodway” means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot.

52. “Remedy a violation” means to bring the structure or other development into compliance with state or local floodplain management regulations, or, if this is not possible, to reduce the impacts of its noncompliance. Ways that impacts may be reduced include protecting the structure or other affected development from flood damages, implementing the enforcement provisions of this chapter or otherwise deterring future similar violations, or reducing federal financial exposure with regard to the structure or other development.

53. “Riverine” means relating to, formed by, or resembling a river (including tributaries), stream, brook, etc.

54. “Special flood hazard area (SFHA)” means an area having special flood or flood-related erosion hazards, and shown on an FHBM or FIRM as zone A, AO, A1-30, AE, A99 or AH.

55. “Start of construction” includes substantial improvement, and means the date the building permit was issued provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, placement or other improvement was within one hundred eighty days of the permit date. The “actual start” means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns, or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. Permanent construction does not include land preparation, such as clearing, grading and filling; nor does it include the installation of streets and/or walkways; nor does it include excavation for a basement, footings, piers, or foundations or the erection of temporary forms; nor does it include the installation on the property of accessory buildings, such as garages or sheds not occupied as dwelling units or not part of the main structure. For a substantial improvement, the “actual start of construction” means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor, or other structural part of a building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.

56. “Structure” means a walled and roofed building, including a gas or liquid storage tank, that is principally aboveground, as well as a manufactured home.

57. “Substantial damage” means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed fifty percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

58. 

59. “Variance” means a grant of relief from the requirements of the ordinance codified herein which permits construction in a manner that would otherwise be prohibited by this chapter, called an exemption herein.

60. “Violation” means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with the city’s floodplain management regulations. A structure or other development without the elevation certificate, other certifications, or other evidence of compliance required in this chapter is presumed to be in violation until such time as that documentation is provided.

61. “Water surface elevation” means the height, in relation to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) of floods of various magnitudes and frequencies in the floodplains of coastal or riverine areas.

62. “Watercourse” means a lake, river, creek, stream, wash, arroyo, channel or other topographic feature on or over which waters flow at least periodically. “Watercourse” includes specifically designated areas in which substantial flood damage may occur. (Ord. 5062 § 1, 2021; Ord. 4469 § 1, 2007)