The Statute Names Two Sets of Rules, Not One
Easy to miss on a first reading and central out here. Where an owner exercises the right to repair, rebuild or replace under section 15.2-2307, the work must comply with the Uniform Statewide Building Code and with the local floodplain regulations adopted as a condition of participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.
So the protection is a protection against zoning, not against floodplain requirements. Restoring a nonconforming structure does not exempt the work from what the floodplain rules require. The full position is on our page covering the clocks and the ceiling.
What Does That Mean in Practice?
Which Makes the Order of Enquiry Matter
Ask the floodplain question before the zoning question out here, because it is the one more likely to change what the work costs. Zoning tells you whether you may put a house back; the floodplain rules bear on how it must be built if you do.
An owner who establishes the zoning answer, commits to a budget and then meets the floodplain requirements has done it in the wrong order and will usually pay for the sequence.
Does the Two-Year Clock Still Run?
We publish no floodplain determinations, elevation requirements or zone findings for individual properties in the southern part of the city. The city's floodplain administration and the zoning office answer those for an address.
Distance Is a Real Cost Out Here
The southern half of the city is large and thinly built. Contractors price travel, deliveries take longer, and a trade making a return visit is making a longer one.
None of that appears in photographs and all of it appears in quotes. It is a reason to prefer a buyer who has driven to the property over one working from an aerial image, because access surprises here arrive as renegotiations.
Rural Stock Varies Widely
Housing ranges from old farmhouses through to comparatively recent coastal construction, so the build era is a poor guide at area level and a good one at parcel level.
Older dimensional framing chars rather than failing at connections and can frequently be retained. Later engineered assemblies come out whole once heat has reached the connections. Establishing which you have is worth more here than almost anywhere, because the alternative is a rebuild at rural access cost.
The South in Context
Where flight paths rather than water set the constraint, see our page about Oceana, London Bridge and the flight paths. Where suburban stock makes files simpler, see our page for Kempsville and Centerville.
The Two Sets of Rules the Statute Names
Section 15.2-2307 requires work done to repair, rebuild or replace to comply both with the Uniform Statewide Building Code at section 36-97 and following and with local floodplain regulations adopted as a condition of participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.
The same section carries the 2 year rebuild window, the 2 year discontinuance limit and the 50 per cent damage provision, and points at section 15.2-2310 for variances. The Virginia Beach overlay at Article 18 and section 1804 stops well north of here.
Southern City Questions
Does My Right to Rebuild Override the Flood Rules?
No. The statute expressly requires the work to comply with local floodplain regulations adopted as a condition of NFIP participation.
Which Do I Ask About First?
The floodplain requirements, because they are more likely to change what the work costs than the zoning answer is.
Will You Buy in Sandbridge or Pungo?
Yes, across the southern half of the city. Distance and floodplain requirements affect the figure and neither stops us buying.