Proposed Changes To FL Building Code; Raising All Coastal Buildings, Regulating Septic Tanks

[hatrack]

But as of 2019, Florida’s massive, nationally renowned statewide building code still doesn’t have much to say about how to build with climate change in mind. That could change this year, as a new Florida International University study commissioned by the Florida Building Commission makes its way through the building code bureaucracy. It’s too late to add anything to the 2020 code update, but a subcommittee accepted the findings unanimously this summer.

One of its first recommendations: bring all new construction along the flood-prone coast up another foot. “The building code doesn’t currently take sea level rise into account,” said Tiffany Troxler, associate director of science for the FIU Sea Rise Solutions Center and co-author of the report. “One recommendation was simply to try to account for that uncertainty that we cannot currently account for, including sea level rise, to add one foot to the elevations that are already recommended.”

Another idea involves following in South Florida’s footsteps and developing a region-specific sea level rise curve that’s updated every five years to guide building. The South Florida projection calls for two feet of sea rise by 2060 and is due to be updated in 2020. A third recommendation calls for the state to review groundwater maps before allowing septic tanks to be installed. Rising groundwater from sea rise has already caused dangerous (and gross) septic failures across Miami-Dade County, a problem that could cost $3 billion to solve in Miami-Dade alone.

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Florida wouldn’t be the first flood-prone place to require extra height on new buildings. New Jersey and New York instituted two feet of freeboard after Superstorm Sandy. Annapolis, Maryland, requires two feet. Nashville calls for four feet. Even Miami and Miami Beach have a minimum freeboard of one foot, with the option to go up to five feet.

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Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article237241299.html#storylink=cpy

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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article237241299.html

[keithbvadu2]

1. But it's just a Chinese hoax acc to Trump.

But it's just a Chinese hoax acc to Trump.

[woodsprite]

2. Our property down there is still 3ft above new FEMA

Flood zone/flood insurance requirements. When (if) we start building, we were going to have it built 3-4’ higher if possible. Depends what the builders are doing at that time.

[Mike 03]

3. This is like Sisyphus and his rock.

The sensible message from books like The Water Will Come, Drying Up and The Geography of Risk is that these are temporary bandaids. Some efforts to out-build rising seas, by the time they are completed they need to be redone. What if you are in a building that is elevated above sea level but all the access roads around you are under water? There are so many issues. Nobody ever will dare talk about phasing out building in floodplains. They continue to replace water-damaged homes and buildings with more expensive ones.