The Commissioner — Fall 2006

Commissioner's Voice

Planning Commission: Wadsworth, Ohio

By Buck Adams

As a planning commissioner who represents the city of Wadsworth and as the director of the Emergency Management Agency, I have strong feelings about the challenges of building a safe community. Several years ago an ad hoc group formed to determine how to develop land that has special challenges while providing protection for current and future residents. The Medina County Commissioners formalized the group in 2004 and charged us with that task. Over the next 18 months we worked to accomplish these goals while making sure we did it in partnership with our development community.

We conducted a hazard analysis that concluded flooding is the primary hazard affecting the county. To overcome that risk, and to allow for safe development without "taking" land, a varied approach is required. We also recognized that the minimum standards established by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are not adequate and that additional regulations and planning approaches were needed.

We followed a multiphased approach to reduce potential flooding of development in the county. County commissioners provided grants to fund comprehensive community development plans and to write or update comprehensive plans. The plans must include public safety and hazard mitigation activities that encourage development that reduces or eliminates the repetitive cycle of damage and repair. We also developed local zoning to support the comprehensive plan and provided sample zoning text based upon community needs or requests to guide and direct vulnerable areas. The planning commission reviews and modifies subdivision regulations to ensure we are following APA's planning and design principles to build safer communities that meet local community needs.

The last major piece, which I am directly involved in, is the revision of the Medina County Flood Damage Reduction Regulations. We are raising freeboard flood protection elevation from one foot to two feet. We have identified "critical facilities" that require additional protection to the 500-year flood level and require two feet of freeboard. In addition, we restricted development in the 100-year floodplain for certain hazardous use groups.

We also required at least one roadway access point for developments within the floodplain to be above the base flood plain elevation. Finally, the regulations require compensatory storage when fill is used in the Special Flood Hazard Area so there is no net loss of natural floodplain storage; the compensatory storage must be on site or adjacent to the fill site.