DRIPPING SPRINGS — The city of Dripping Springs now has its own standalone flood damage prevention ordinance following unanimous approval by city council at its Jan. 7 meeting. This is required for continued compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
The city currently regulates development in the floodplain by referencing the Flood Damage Prevention Regulations adopted by Hays County on Feb. 21, 2017. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has produced revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) for Hays County and incorporated areas, including Dripping Springs, and the new maps and Flood Insurance Study will be made effective by FEMA on Jan. 17, 2025 — leading FEMA to request a copy of the city’s updated and adopted ordinance prior to that date, which is required, so that the city is compliant and in good standing with the NFIP.
“Currently, the city regulates development of the floodplain by referring to Hays County's floodplain development ordinance. Updated FEMA maps have been available to the public since 2017 [and] since that time, we utilized those FEMA maps as best available data. In 2018, we supported an appeal to those maps, which were, up until now, considered preliminary by FEMA; we supported an appeal for the Heritage Village and for the Heritage subdivision. FEMA agreed with that appeal and updated the maps at that time,” explained Chad Gilpin, city engineer. “So, as of January 17 of 2025, FEMA is going to make those preliminary maps effective. FEMA requires that we update our ordinance adopting those maps, so that we can stay in compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program.”
The ordinance, drafted by Gilpin, was created by using a template from FEMA that is issued statewide to all jurisdictions. He explained that he looked at the Hays County ordinance that the city has referred to for the past several years, along with looking at some of the city’s other ordinances, including those for zoning and subdivisions, and made some minor updates.
“We currently do not have an ordinance. We don't have a standalone city ordinance. We currently refer to Hays County's ordinance, which was created similarly to this. A template was given to Hays County. They created a county floodplain ordinance and we have referred to it and used it that way,” Gilpin said. “So, this new ordinance …. It’s very similar to Hays County’s. It's got a few tweaks with regards to compliance with our zoning ordinances and our subdivision ordinances.”
Council member Taline Manassian asked if there were any significant changes to the ordinance that they should be aware of.
“I don't think so. The major tweaks for our ordinance were a clear establishment of when folks develop, they have to establish the spread of the 100-year flow through the development and then, they have to put that on the plat … It's really just putting in there things that we pull out of the subdivision ordinance and things that we pull out of the zoning ordinance to accomplish this, but now we've kind of put it in one location for flooding management.”
If council decided not to establish its own ordinance, the city of Dripping Springs would not be allowed to be part of the flood insurance program, residents along the floodplains would not be able to get floodplain insurance from FEMA and the city would be in jeopardy of losing certain grants for flooding, Gilpin said.
The item was approved in a 4-0 vote.
Dripping Springs City Council meets next at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
