Louisville/Jefferson County
Floodplain Management Plan Overview

Introduction: Due to participation in the Community Rating System (CRS) program, FEMA required the City of Louisville and Jefferson County to update the Floodplain Management Plan (FPMP) in 2000. Coincidently, in 1999, our community became a Project Impact community. Project Impact is FEMA’s nationwide program for “Building a Disaster Resistant Community”. Much like FEMA’s National Mitigation Strategy, Project Impact, and the CRS’ FPMP guidelines all require stakeholders to identify the hazards and problems, assess the vulnerabilities, and design a mitigation plan through partnerships with local agencies and citizens.

In essence, the community must strive for a balanced program that addresses becoming a disaster resistant community through such actions as protecting existing development while managing new development all the while preserving and protecting natural and beneficial functions of the floodplain. Research shows that to be effective, a hazard mitigation plan should be locally developed from the ground up. With these concepts in mind, MSD partnered with Project Impact in late 1999 to coordinate the development of a 25 member Advisory Committee.

The current Advisory Committee represents flood-related agencies, government, businesses, neighborhoods, and citizens. Through consensus building, the Advisory Committee will continue to develop a five-year action plan and design a strategy for hazard mitigation that will complement the community’s existing programs.

Purpose: In general, the FPMP brings all the programs and initiatives for watershed, floodplain, emergency, and hazard management together into one document as a Master Plan. The overall goal of the Advisory Committee is to continue to develop a five-year action plan to guide the community in a holistic, coordinated effort to raise the consciousness of all hazards, including flood-risk, and to reduce potential damages to life and property.

Objectives: To set the stage for the Advisory Committee, the flooding history, causes and concerns of the community were clearly defined and possible solutions to the problem reviewed. As a result, the Advisory Committee continues to develop the most appropriate approaches to solve the problems through an Action Plan.

Planning Process: The Advisory Committee began meeting every three weeks beginning in March 2000 and by December developed a comprehensive five-year Action Plan.

Adoption: Both city and county adopted the Louisville/Jefferson County FPMP in February 2001.

The floodplain management plan process outlines a ten-step process:

Maintenance: The Advisory Committee continues to meet quarterly to keep projects on track and implemented. MSD submits a progress report annually to FEMA for the Five-Year Action Plan.

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