Minor changes to a state rule prohibiting construction in frequently flooded areas could make a big difference for efforts to raise homes in Bucoda and other flood prone areas.
Jonathon Loos, a floodplain management policy lead with the Washington state Department of Ecology, presented to the Chehalis Basin Board and Office of Chehalis Basin during the board's meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4. During the presentation, Loos announced that the implementation of a new rule by the Department of Ecology would provide a pathway to make flood safety improvements to homes in the official floodway.
Washington state outright prohibits new construction in a floodway or floodplain and also prohibits major changes to homes in those same areas. In this case, “floodway” refers to a part of a floodplain reserved to convey flood water and “floodplain” refers to parts of land that flood less frequently.
The only exception to the rule is flood safety improvements made to structures that have already been “significantly damaged” by flooding. In those cases, the state can issue a waiver to a property owner to allow a project to move forward. According to Loos, that waiver has been available since 1987. However, Loos added that the rule has prevented landowners from adding flood safety improvements before the damage could occur.
“This applied to homes whether they predated state law or if they were newly mapped into the floodway following flood map updates as was the case in the town of Bucoda,” Loos said. “And of course this creates a challenge because it prevents homeowners in flood ways from seeking proactive flood safety improvements before flood loss occurs.”
The new rule change is an attempt to remedy that issue. Under the new rule new criteria is set to qualify for a waiver. The state can now approve changes before damage occurs as long as the proposed changes are “for the primary purpose of improving flood safety” and meet flood safety criteria concerning the depth of expected flooding and expected flow rates.
According to Office of Chehalis Basin Principal Planner Nat Kale, the creation of the new rule was largely set in motion by the office’s effort to raise homes in Bucoda years earlier. At the time, the office wanted to fund projects to raise homes in cooperation with the City of Bucoda and many of the local homeowners. But a recent update to the local flood maps placed many of the homes in the floodway. That change meant those homes were now prohibited from major changes under state law.
Kale said that in order to move forward with the project, the now deceased former mayor of Bucoda, Rob Gordon, worked with the Office of Chehalis Basin to pursue two solutions. One, which is still ongoing, is a push from Bucoda and Thurston County to change the flood maps around Bucoda, and the second was the push for the new rule.
Kale added that in pursuit of a rule change, Gordon reached out to state legislators and eventually hit home with state Sen. John Braun, who sponsored and championed the bill that would jumpstart the creation of the new statewide rule.
“This ended up being a statewide rule, but its origins were very much in the Chehalis Basin in Bucoda in the work we do,” Kale said.
During the 2024 Washington state legislative session, Braun sponsored Senate Bill 5649, which called for the new rule to be made and officially launched the rulemaking process that has now come to an end. The bill was first introduced in 2023 but was finally passed into law in 2024, moving out of the state Legislature with unanimous votes from both Washington's Senate and House of Representatives.
