How the Floodplain Division Can Help
Reach out to the Floodplain Division for help with any of the following:
- Finding out which flood zone your property is in and how much flood risk it faces
- Learning about past flooding in your neighborhood
- Understanding whether flood insurance is available to you and where to buy a policy
- Making sense of lender rules under the federal "Mandatory Purchase of Flood Insurance" requirements
- Scheduling a site visit to look at flooding, drainage or stormwater issues, with advice tailored to your property
- Building standards in flood-prone areas, plus as-built Elevation Certificates if the City has a copy on file
- Ways to reduce flood damage, including raising, moving or removing buildings that flood again and again
- Retrofitting options, such as barriers, small levees and floodwalls, that can keep water out of buildings and basements
Floodplain Topics
Floodplain Management Plan
Read the City's Floodplain Management Plan now in effect, which covers 2021 through 2026.
Floodplain Development Permit
Any development proposed within 200 feet of a floodplain or Special Flood Hazard Area needs this permit. Learn how to apply.
Know Your Flood Hazard
See where flooding has happened before and which parts of Fredville are most likely to flood.
Flood Awareness and Safety Tips
Steps to take ahead of time and while a flood is happening to keep your household safe.
Flood Insurance
Why a policy from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is among the most effective ways to protect your home and what is inside it.
Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWP3)
Before any soil is disturbed on a site, the owner or operator must prepare an SWP3.
Flood Insurance Rate Maps
The City offers a map information service so any resident can look up the flood zone for a particular property.
Property Protection
Actions the City is taking, and steps you can take, to lower flood risk in your neighborhood.
Protect Natural Floodplain Areas
How all of us can help preserve Fredville's floodplains, creeks and other waterways.
Flood Warnings and Disaster Preparedness
The ways the City tracks rising water, warns residents and decides when roads must close.
Build Responsibly
Building in a floodplain is governed by the City's ordinances and construction codes. These rules are what make NFIP flood insurance available to Fredville property owners.
Substantial Improvement and Substantial Damage Requirements
City ordinance requires a building permit for any work that counts as a substantial improvement or as repair of substantial damage.
Drainage System Maintenance
Dumping debris of any kind into a creek, stream, river, canal or drainage ditch is against the law in Fredville. Trash and yard waste can snag in culverts and shallow channels and block the flow, so water backs up.
Live Stream Gauges (U.S. Geological Survey)
Check live water readings for Stony Creek and the Sorrel River where they pass through Fredville.
Fredville Rain and Water Level Gauges
Maps showing current rainfall totals and water levels around the city.
City-Wide Drainage Master Plans
The overall drainage master plan road map, plus individual reports for each watershed.
Floodplain Regulations in the Unified Development Code
These rules exist to protect public health, safety and welfare and to reduce the public and private losses that floods cause.
Flood Crossing Gates
When Sweetgum Creek rises over Wrenfield Parkway near Dunmore Park West, automatic gates at the low-water crossing come down to stop traffic.
Temporary Batch Plant Permit
A temporary permit may be issued for a plant that mixes concrete, asphalt or other paving and building materials. The permit lasts six months and can be extended once for another six months.
Elevation Certificates
Look up elevation certificates on file or ask for one to be prepared.
Lower Flood Insurance Costs Through the Community Rating System
Fredville's continuing floodplain management work through the NFIP's Community Rating System (CRS) is cutting flood losses and saving residents money on insurance.
The CRS is an optional part of the National Flood Insurance Program. Communities that go beyond the NFIP's minimum floodplain management standards earn credit, and their residents pay less for flood insurance as a result. Fredville currently earns its residents a 20 percent reduction in flood insurance premiums.
About the Community Rating System (CRS)
Fredville takes part in the CRS, a voluntary incentive program within the NFIP. It rewards communities whose floodplain management goes further than the NFIP requires.
Premiums are discounted to reflect the lower risk that results when a community works toward the three CRS goals:
- Cutting flood losses
- Supporting accurate insurance ratings
- Raising awareness of flood insurance
Joining the NFIP does not by itself make a community part of the CRS; the CRS is a separate, additional step. Fredville currently holds a CRS Class 6 rating, so owners of property in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) receive a 20% discount on flood insurance premiums.
Flood Information for the Public
The City's Stormwater Department runs a flood information service that anyone can use. Staff can provide:
- Basic flood map information and floodway details
- Copies of Elevation Certificates
- Expected flood depths and lowest floor elevations
- Records of past floods
- Information about areas that flood even though they sit outside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area
- Erosion setback areas
- How natural floodplains benefit the community
- Other flood-related questions
You can get this information by visiting the department and talking with a staff member, by calling, or by using the City's website.
Curious about your property's flood zone and flood risk? Anyone can use the City's map information service to look up a specific address. Printed Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) can be viewed at the City's Planning and Development Center, and the current maps are also linked from the Flood Insurance Rate Maps page.
On request, the Stormwater Department can also do a non-technical review of an individual property and offer advice on floodproofing and other ways to reduce flood damage. Staff can meet with you at the office or come out to the property to look at the situation in person.
Contact the Stormwater Department:
- In person: 100 Civic Center Drive, Fredville, TX 75999
- Phone: (555) 010-2124
- Email: [email protected]
Letters of Map Revision (LOMR)
Floodplain boundaries are not permanent. A developer who wants to fill or otherwise change part of a floodplain must first complete a flood study demonstrating that the project will not cause harm or significantly change water surface elevations. The study and a detailed application can then go to FEMA for a Letter of Map Revision. Once approved, a LOMR officially updates the FIRM. Individual owners who believe their property was mapped into the floodplain by mistake can send supporting information to FEMA and request a Letter of Map Amendment, or LOMA.
Many LOMRs and LOMAs have been issued for properties inside Fredville. Because lenders and insurers do not always know about these updates, you may want to call Engineering Services at (555) 010-4670 to learn whether your area's floodplain map has been revised and to get a copy of the revision. Numerous Letters of Map Change can also be downloaded from FEMA's online flood map service.
Downloads
- Floodplain Management Plan, 2021 to 2026 (PDF, 665 KB)
- Floodplain Management Plan, 2015 to 2020 (PDF, 274 KB)
CRS Annual Reports
| Year | Floodplain Management Plan report | Coverage Improvement Plan report | Program for Public Information report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | PDF, 130 KB | PDF, 119 KB | PDF, 192 KB |
| 2023 | PDF, 123 KB | PDF, 119 KB | PDF, 131 KB |
| 2022 | PDF, 292 KB | PDF, 230 KB | PDF, 305 KB |
| 2019 | PDF, 84 KB | PDF, 85 KB | Not available |
| 2018 | PDF, 83 KB | PDF, 82 KB | Not available |
| 2017 | PDF, 78 KB | PDF, 92 KB | Not available |
| 2016 | PDF, 73 KB | PDF, 70 KB | Not available |
Brochure
- Floodplain brochure, English (PDF, 378 KB)
- Floodplain brochure, Spanish: "Planicie de Inundación" (PDF, 1 MB)
Stormwater Newsletter
Each article below is available in English and Spanish.
- Free weather apps (PDF, 59 KB)
- Understanding flash flood risk (PDF, 56 KB)
- Flood hazards (PDF, 1 MB)
- Insuring your property against flooding (PDF, 1 MB)
- Public information and flood information assistance (PDF, 66 KB)
- Building responsibly (PDF, 71 KB)
- Protecting natural floodplain areas (PDF, 59 KB)
- Flood warnings and disaster preparedness (PDF, 553 KB)
- The Community Rating System (PDF, 92 KB)
- Flood safety tips (PDF, 134 KB)
- A letter from the Mayor encouraging flood insurance (PDF, 74 KB)
At a glance
- What we do
- Helps residents understand and reduce flood risk and manages building in the floodplain.
- Services
- Led by
- Orla Mabry, Floodplain Administrator
- Address
- City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive, Fredville, TX 75999
- Hours
- Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Phone
- (555) 010-2124
- [email protected]
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