Duluth UDC § 836.05

Located within areas of special flood hazard are areas designated as floodway. A floodway may be an extremely hazardous area due to velocity flood waters, debris or erosion potential. In addition, floodways must remain free of encroachment in order to allow for the discharge of the base flood without increased flood heights. Therefore, the following provisions shall apply: 1. Encroachments are prohibited, including earthen fill, new construction, substantial improvements or other development within the regulatory floodway, except for activities specifically allowed in (2) below. 2. Encroachments for bridges, culverts, roadways and utilities within the regulatory floodway may be permitted provided it is demonstrated through hydrologic and hydraulic analyses performed in accordance with standard engineering practice that the encroachment shall not result in any increase to the pre-project base flood elevations, floodway elevations, or floodway widths during the base flood discharge. A registered professional engineer must provide supporting technical data and certification thereof; and, 3. If the applicant proposes to revise the floodway boundaries, no permit authorizing the encroachment into or an alteration of the floodway shall be issued by the Planning and Development Department until an affirmative conditional letter of map revision (CLOMR) is issued by FEMA and no-rise certification is approved by Planning and Development Department.