EBR metro council passes limited moratorium, increasing hurdles for building in some flood-prone areas
BATON ROUGE - Officials passed a limited moratorium for East Baton Rouge Parish on Wednesday, creating stricter requirements for building new developments in areas prone to flooding.
"If you want to build in those flood zones, then we're going to take the standards that we have currently, and we're going to increase those," Councilman Rowdy Gaudet said. "And frankly, I would say, increase them significantly."
Previously, developers building in certain flood zones would have to build to the standard of a 25-year flood event. Now, they must build to accommodate a 100-year flood event in flood zones specified in the moratorium.
Gaudet previously described the ordinance, which will be effective for one year, as less a moratorium to stop development but a "more strategic approach" to address flood concerns.