How high can I fill a lot in Palm Beach County?
I looked into this a bit this morning. How much can a lot be filled? This is the PBC ordinance governing this question…
Basically, the first living area floor of the house must be at least the GREATER of 1′ above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE), or 1.5′ above the Lowest Adjacent Road Crown (LARC).
And the MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF FILL THAT CAN BE ADDED to the site (brought into it) other than that required to raise the slab on grade or allow for things like an ADA compliant ramp or a berm for a septic system :
“On all new construction, earth fill brought onto the site of construction from another site shall be minimized to maximize existing floodwater storage capacity. Maximum volume of imported fill shall be limited to that necessary to raise an earth pad to elevate the slab-on-grade, not more than six inches above minimum floor elevation set in this Article, with side slopes of the pad of 1:5 to 1:3 starting ten feet from the slab edges.“
So, lets say the Property is in Flood Zone AE and is thus in the SFHA and has a Base Flood Elevation (BFE) = 4′ NAVD and a Lowest Adjacent Road Crown (LARC) of 3.8′ NAVD. The slab of the first floor must be at least 4’+1’=5, or 3.8′ + 1.5′ = 5.3′. So the first floor slab must be AT LEAST 5.3′ above the NAVD. And the fill brought into the site can be NOT MORE THAN THAT WHICH IS REQUIRED TO MAKE THE SLAB 6″ ABOVE THIS SO 5.3’+0.5′ = 5.8′ NAVD and this level of fill can only extend 10′ from the edge of the slab.
One other bid exception to this is if the property has on-site septic then this must be may control elevation of the house as well.
