Developing in a Floodway

[CVal]

Hello,

Just doing some best practices investigating. The subject commercial site is half foodway. No engineering reports available. Based on web research and talking to village engineers, it's very unlikely to be able to build in these areas. Therefore, I usually deduct the Floodway from the useable area of the site.

How does that line up with what you others are doing? Thanks for any responses.

 

[BRCJR]

Depends, could that area be utilized for ingress and egress, for example?
Could that area be used for the retention/detention pond?

I do not think there is set answer.

 

[TerryRohrer]

That should be a conclusion based on data, not an assumption.

 

[CVal]

Back of sight so I don't see it for ingress/egress. This is Floodway, not floodplain, so I don't think detention would work.

Depends, could that area be utilized for ingress and egress, for example?
Could that area be used for the retention/detention pond?

I do not think there is set answer.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Depending upon depth and flow of water, you could physically build there in many cases. Works for residences, sure it would work for commercial.

 

[Mark K]

Depending upon depth and flow of water, you could physically build there in many cases. Works for residences, sure it would work for commercial.
View attachment 98968

In this area, maybe you can keep it (grandfathered) in a floodway but absolutely no current developing in floodway.

Flood plain is a different story and there are certain hoops you can jump thru to develop or build.

Another issue to consider is that sometimes the floodway can be considered in the development plat as required greenspace, if the local development standards require a % of such.

In this area there are EXTREMELY limited uses (floodway) but that doesn't mean that portion has no value. I just went thru this scenario (condemnation) with a couple of parcels in the floodway. One parcel had a house in the middle of it and one was vacant with 1/2 of the commercial site in floodway.

 

[CVal]

In this area, maybe you can keep it (grandfathered) in a floodway but absolutely no current developing in floodway.

Flood plain is a different story and there are certain hoops you can jump thru to develop or build.

Another issue to consider is that sometimes the floodway can be considered in the development plat as required greenspace, if the local development standards require a % of such.

In this area there are EXTREMELY limited uses (floodway) but that doesn't mean that portion has no value. I just went thru this scenario (condemnation) with a couple of parcels in the floodway. One parcel had a house in the middle of it and one was vacant with 1/2 of the commercial site in floodway.

Thanks for your response. I'm looking at a commercial site, I don't think required green space is in play. Since most likely based on interviews and research it can't be developed, I'm wondering where the value add would be? Is it just the green space like you're saying?

 

[Mark K]

Thanks for your response. I'm looking at a commercial site, I don't think required green space is in play. Since most likely based on interviews and research it can't be developed, I'm wondering where the value add would be? Is it just the green space like you're saying?

You never know what could happen with it in the future so I think its reasonable to conclude that it has some value.

For our case, we had some sales of floodway land and used those comps for valuing that portion of the site in the floodway. The commercial portion we valued at $250K/acre and the floodway portion at $15K/acre. Two different HBU, two separate unit values. Our floodway sales were used for public parks, trails/linear park, ag land (crops and pasture), well field for muni water service, and one purchased by a residential neighbor for privacy.

In this area, virtually all commercial development will require some greenspace so it is useful for that purpose.