Creating Permanent No-Build Areas

Several options exist for communities to permanently protect certain areas—including the acquisition of land through potential funding sources. Permanent protection is especially appropriate for areas where flooding is so frequent or severe that any development would put people or property at extreme risk, or for areas that provide significant storm protection for development. Your community may wish to set aside these high-risk areas as parks, recreation areas, or other greenspaces. For some potential funding sources, see the funding page.

The following is a list of appropriate techniques.

• The town of Chatham has a Zoning Bylaw that prohibits new residential constuction in their entire mapped floodplain. Also see StormSmart Fact Sheet 3, A Cape Cod Community Prevents New Residences in Floodplains (PDF, 1 MB) for an overview of the bylaw and its history.
• The Cape Cod Commission has a Model Bylaw For Effectively Managing Coastal Floodplain Development (PDF, 1.1 MB), which recommends that communities discourage new or expanded non-water dependent structures in the coastal high hazard zone.
• Establishing setback lines for new construction can help keep structures away from shorelines and hazard-prone areas (such as those with high erosion rates). For an overview of setbacks, see the Construction Setbacks webpage from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.
• Maine has adopted a series of regulations to strictly limit new construction and reconstruction in coastal dunes, including a prohibition of structures likely to be damaged by erosion within a 100-year period of time. See Maine's Coastal Sand Dune Rules (WORD, 130 KB).
• The "rolling easement" approach is an innovative regulatory framework modeled after an existing Texas law that allows people to use their land as they will, but prohibits them from stopping the natural advance of the ocean. For an overview, see Rising Seas, Coastal Erosion, and the Takings Clause.
• The Massachusetts Community Preservation Act helps communities to preserve open space.