Floodplain Development Permits

Floodplain Development Permits (PDF) are required for all types of development. Development is any man-made change to real estate including but not limited to:

• Demolition, construction, reconstruction, repair, placement of a building, or any structural alteration to a building
• Substantial improvement of an existing building
• Installation of a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for a manufactured home, or installing a travel trailer on a site for more than one hundred eighty days per year
• Installation of utilities, construction of roads, bridges, culverts or similar projects
• Construction or erection of levees, dams walls or fences
• Drilling, mining, filling, dredging, grading, excavating, paving, or other alterations of the ground surface
• Storage of materials including the placement of gas and liquid storage tanks, and channel modifications or any other activity that might change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface waters

Development does not include routine maintenance of existing buildings and facilities, resurfacing roads, or gardening, plowing, and similar practices that do not involve filing, grading, or construction of levees, however, building permits are still required for all construction activities. When a property is in the floodplain, building permits may be required for all improvements to a property.

If a property is located in the mapped floodway, the applicant will first need to obtain a permit from Illinois Department Of Natural Resources - Office of Water Resources (IDNR-OWR) before we can issue a local Floodplain Development Permit.