Corpus Christi (KIII News) — City Council was dealing with a full agenda during Tuesday's scheduled meeting, including one item that would establish higher code standards for building in a floodplain.
Increasing the standards will hopefully do two things -- save lives and decrease some insurance costs.
The new standards would apply to all new construction and require, for example, that all new construction would have to be elevated one foot above base flood elevation. That would depend on where the structure would be located based on the latest floodplain maps available on the City website.
Nina Nixon-Mendez, Director of the City's Development Services Department, said the new standards would not affect buildings and homes already there but could affect reconstruction after any disaster.
"In terms of fire, natural disaster, that kind of thing, then at that point if it were 50-percent of the value of the improvements of the property were impacted, in other words, reconstruct greater than that, then that would also apply," Nixon-Mendez said.
If the City adopts the higher standards, it could save taxpayers more than $1.5 million in insurance premiums by moving our area from a 7 to a 6 classification, which means a 20-percent discount.
Following Council approval, a public hearing on the higher standards will be scheduled.
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