Found 2 blog entries tagged as flood zone renovation.

Rhode Island · Renovation Limits

Rhode Island’s 50% Rule Applies to Every Building in the State

Not just homes on the water. It’s written into state law, it runs on a fixed twelve-month clock, and it has three tiers — not one line.

Seaport Advisory  ·  Southern Rhode Island & Southeastern Connecticut Rhode Island's three tiers: restore in kind under 25%, official's discretion 25-50%, new code over 50%

Most people first hear about the 50% rule in a flood context — renovate a house past a certain point and the whole structure has to be brought up to current flood standards. That version is real, and it comes from the federal flood insurance program.

Rhode Island has its own, and it is broader. It sits in the state building code rather than in a local flood ordinance, which means it reaches a farmhouse in Hopkinton the same…

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Connecticut · Flood Zone Renovations

The 50% Rule Isn’t One Rule. That’s Why So Many Renovations Go Sideways.

Three separate rules share the same number. Almost nobody separates them — and in Connecticut, the one that decides your project is written by your town, not the state.

Seaport Advisory  ·  Southeastern Connecticut & Southern Rhode Island Three rules share the 50% number: federal substantial improvement, RI building code, local zoning nonconformity

A few days ago a group of us got into it over the 50% rule — the one that says you can only renovate a house in a flood zone so far before the whole building has to come up to current code. Everyone in the room knew the rule. Everyone in the room had a different version of it.

That’s not a knowledge problem. It’s that three separate rules share the same number, and almost nobody…

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