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Chapter 160

§ 160.02: what changed

From the version in force August 11, 2010 (2010 Code) to the version in force November 6, 2025 (Ord. 2025-521). Removed words are struck through, added words underlined.

Unofficial compilation built from the City's published 2010 Code chapters and the text of adopted ordinances. Effective dates are inferred from adoption records; scanned chapters were OCR'd. The City of Tiffin's adopted Code of Ordinances governs. Not legal advice.

Unless specifically defined below, words 1. The Legislature of the State of Iowa has in Chapter 364, Code of Iowa, as amended, delegated the power to cities to exercise any power and perform any function it deems appropriate to protect and preserve the rights, privileges and property of the City or phrases used in this chapter shall be interpreted so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage of its residents, and to give this chapter preserve and improve the peace, safety, health, welfare, comfort and convenience of its most reasonable application. residents.
1. “Base flood” means 2. Findings of Fact.
A. The flood hazard areas of the City are subject to periodic inundation which can result in loss of life and property, health and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures for flood having one percent chance protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base all of which adversely affect the public health, safety and general welfare of the community.
B. These flood losses, hazards, and related adverse effects are caused by:
(1) The occupancy of flood hazard areas by uses vulnerable to flood damages which create hazardous conditions as a result of being equaled inadequately elevated or exceeded otherwise protected from flooding; and
(2) The cumulative effect of obstructions on the floodplain causing increases in any given year. (See 100-year flood.) flood heights and velocities.
2. “Basement” means any enclosed area C. This chapter relies upon engineering methodology for analyzing flood hazards which is consistent with the standards established by the Department of a building which has its floor or lowest level below ground level (subgrade) on all sides. (Also see “lowest floor.”) Natural Resources.
3. “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.
4. “Existing construction” means any structure for which the “start Statement of construction” commenced before the effective date of the community’s Flood Insurance Rate Map. (May also be referred to as “existing structure.”)
5. “Existing factory-built home park or subdivision” means a factory-built home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the factory-built 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) was completed before the effective date of these flood plain management regulations.
6. “Expansion of existing factory-built home park or subdivision” means the preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the factory-built 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).
7. “Factory-built home” means any structure designed for residential use which Purpose. It is wholly or in substantial part made, fabricated, formed, or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation or assembly and installation on a building site. For the purpose of this chapter, “factory-built home” includes mobile homes, manufactured homes, chapter to protect and modular homes preserve the rights, privileges, and also includes “recreational vehicles” which are placed on a site for greater than 180 consecutive days and not fully licensed for and ready for highway use.
8. “Factory-built home park” means a parcel or contiguous parcels of land divided into two or more factory-built home lots for sale or lease.
9. “Flood” means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas resulting from the overflow of streams or rivers or from the unusual and rapid runoff of surface waters from any source.
10. “Flood elevation” means the elevation floodwaters would reach at a particular site during the occurrence of a specific flood. For instance, the 100-year flood elevation is the elevation of floodwaters related to the occurrence property of the 100-year flood. City and its residents and to preserve and improve the peace, safety, health, welfare, and comfort and convenience of its residents by minimizing those flood losses described in Section 160.02(A) with provisions designed to:
11. “Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)” means A. Reserve sufficient floodplain area for the official map prepared as part conveyance of (but published separately from) the Flood Insurance Study which delineates both the flood hazard areas and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.
12. “Flood plain” means any land area susceptible to being inundated by water as a result of a flood.
13. “Flood plain management” means an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damages and promoting the wise use of flood plains, including but not limited to emergency preparedness plans, flood control works, flood proofing, and flood plain management regulations.
14. “Flood proofing” means any combination of structural and nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures, including utility and sanitary facilities which will reduce or eliminate flood damage to such structures.
15. “Floodway” means the channel of a river or stream and those portions of the flood plains adjoining the channel, which are reasonably required to carry and discharge floodwaters or flood flows so that confinement flood heights and velocities will not be increased substantially.
B. Restrict or prohibit uses which are dangerous to health, safety, or property in times of flood flows to the floodway area will not cumulatively increase the water surface elevation of the base or which cause excessive increases in flood by more than one foot.
16. “Floodway fringe” means those portions of the flood plain, other than the floodway, which can be filled, leveed, heights or otherwise obstructed without causing substantially higher flood levels or flow velocities.
17. “Historic structure” means any structure C. Require that is: uses vulnerable to floods, including public facilities which serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction or substantial improvement.
A. Listed individually D. Protect individuals from buying lands which may not be suited for intended purposes because of flood hazard.
E. Assure that eligibility is maintained for property owners in the National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the Department of Interior, or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual listing in community to purchase flood insurance through the National Register;
B. Certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the Secretary to qualify as a registered historic district;
C. Individually listed on a state inventory of historic places in states with historic preservation programs which have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior; or
D. Individually listed on a local inventory of historic places in communities with historic preservation programs that have been certified by either: (i) an approved State program as determined by the Secretary of the Interior; or (ii) directly by the Secretary of the Interior in states without approved programs.
18. “Lowest floor” means the floor of the lowest enclosed area in a building including a basement except when all the following criteria are met:
A. The enclosed area is designed to flood to equalize hydrostatic pressure during floods with walls or openings that satisfy the provisions of Section 160.08(4)(A); and
B. The enclosed area is unfinished (not carpeted, dry-walled, etc.) and used solely for low damage potential uses such as building access, parking or storage; and
C. Machinery and service facilities (e.g., hot water heater, furnace, electrical service) contained in the enclosed area are located at least one foot above the 100-year flood level; and
D. The enclosed area is not a “basement” as defined in this section. In cases where the lowest enclosed area satisfies criteria A, B, C, and D above, the lowest floor is the floor of the next highest enclosed area that does not satisfy the criteria above.
19. “New construction” (new buildings, factory-built home parks) means those structures or development for which the start of construction commenced on or after the effective date of the Flood Insurance Rate Map.
20. “New factory-built home park or subdivision” means a factory-built home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the factory-built 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 the effective date of these flood plain management regulations.
21. “100-year flood” means a flood, the magnitude of which has a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year or which, on the average, will be equaled or exceeded at least once every 100 years.
22. “Recreational vehicle” means a vehicle which is:
A. Built on a single chassis;
B. Four hundred (400) square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projection;
C. Designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and
D. Designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as a temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use.
23. “Special flood hazard area” means the land within a community subject to the “100-year flood.” This land is identified as Zone A, AE, A1-A30, AO, and AH on the City’s Flood Insurance Rate Map.
24. “Start of construction” includes substantial improvement, and means the date the development permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, placement, or other improvement was within 180 days of the permit date. The actual start means either the first placement or permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as pouring of a slab or footings, the installation of pile, the construction of columns, or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a factory-built 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 the building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.
25. “Structure” means anything constructed or erected on the ground or attached to the ground, including, but not limited to, buildings, factories, sheds, cabins, factory-built homes, storage tanks, and other similar uses.
26. “Substantial damage” means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damage condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
27. “Substantial improvement” means any improvement to a structure which satisfies either of the following criteria:
A. Any repair, reconstruction, or improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure either: (i) before the “start of construction” of the improvement, or (ii) if the structure has been “substantially damaged” and is being restored, before the damage occurred. The term does not, however, include any project for improvement of a structure to comply with existing State or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which are solely necessary to assure safe conditions for the existing use. The term also does not include any alteration of an “historic structure,” provided the alteration will not preclude the structure’s designation as an “historic structure.”
B. Any addition which increases the original floor area of a building by 25 percent or more. All additions constructed after the effective date of the Flood Insurance Rate Map shall be added to any proposed addition in determining whether the total increase in original floor space would exceed 25 percent.
28. “Variance” means a grant of relief by a community from the terms of the flood plain management regulations.
29. “Violation” means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with this chapter. Program.

Spacing and paragraph breaks come from the source documents' text and may differ from the printed layout. Word-level comparison; OCR differences in scanned ordinances show as changes.

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Data last updated October 22, 2026. Built from the archive's documents; see how the data is built.