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> , discharge, depth and velocity, and areal extent of flooding) are based on a lesser level of detail than can be achieved uSing the 4It best available engineering techniques. The result is the delineation of a 100-year floodplain with less accuracy than the Board has heretofore required. Another reason that local communities are asking that the Board designate and approve approximate floodplains stems from the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP is a federal program which provides, among other things, subsidized flood insurance for local communities. In order to gain entry into the "regular phase" of the NFIP, a community must, among other things, adopt zoning regulations for its floodplains. As noted above, towns/cities and counties in Colorado cannot adopt such regulations unless and until the Board has designated and approved the delineation of a community's floodplains. In response to a Congressional directive, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is the agency responsible for the administration of the NFIP, has set September 30, 1987, as the date by which communities nationwide must be converted from the "emergency phase" to the "regular phase" of the NFIP (the "emergency phase" has permitted communities to get into the NFIP on a temporary basis). However, there are so many communities for which detailed delineations of floodplains have not been completed that FEMA intends to provide only enough funding for some communities to do approximate floodplain studies. 4It These studies will not meet the standards and criteria which the Board has heretofore required before it would designate and approve a floodplain. Yet, if the Board does not designate and approve the approximate floodplains which will be identified by FEMA's forthcoming studies, then Colorado's communities will not be able to enact the zoning regulations which are a prerequisite to their conversion into the "regular phase" of the NFIP. In turn, the benefits of the NFIP would become unavailable to many Colorado communities. On a very few previous occasions, the Board has designated and approved approximate floodplains. These designations have been conditioned upon a local government having detailed engineering work done any time a proposed development activity falls within the approximate floodplain. Recommendation The staff has carefully reviewed the problems which local communities face in gaining entry into the NFIP, the problems associated with the lack of funding for detailed engineering studies to support each and every floodplain delineation, and the statutory basis for the establishment of standards and criteria by 4It MEMORANDUM -2- November 8, 1984