Flood Hazard Prevention

This page serves as the Town's resource to educate the public about the hazards of flood prone areas. This page also contains information about the Mills River Hazard Prevention Ordinance.


Background

Approximately 15% of the Town of Mills River is in a flood prone area or floodplain. This equates to 3.25 square miles of land that may regularly flood in Town limits. These flood prone areas are subject to periodic inundation of flood waters which can result in the loss of life and property, pose health and safety hazards, disrupt commerce and governmental services, which may lead to extraordinary public expense for flood protection, rescue, and relief.

Flood Prone Areas & Active Flooding Updates

To see if your property or structure is in a flood prone area, visit the State of North Carolina's Flood Risk Information System (FRIS) at https://fris.nc.gov.

For current information on flood conditions in the Town of Mills River, visit the State of North Carolina's Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network (FIMAN) at https://fiman.nc.gov.

Hazard Prevention Ordinance

Historically, the Town of Mills River has not implemented any type of floodplain regulation, essentially leaving the flood prone areas in the Town of Mills River unregulated. Due to the unprecedented impacts from Hurricane Helene and continued development pressure, the Town spent the last ten months carefully crafting an ordinance specific to the needs of Mills River. 

This past year included meetings with the leaders of the State floodplain program, research of regulations in other communities, establishing a development moratorium for flood prone areas,  and nine meetings of the Town Council to discuss and review draft regulations. On October 6, 2025, the Town Council adopted a Hazard Prevention Ordinance with regulations for all flood prone areas in the Town of Mills River. 

The new Hazard Prevention regulations prohibit most types of development and structures in flood prone areas, except for the following allowed uses:

  • Residential accessory structures (sheds, barns, outbuildings, etc.) with no utilities, no temperature control, and no dwellings in the structure.
  • Bona-fide farm and agricultural land uses and land maintenance activities, with some standards for agricultural structures and liquid or gas storage tanks.
  • A water-dependent facility.
  • A governmental or public utility land use.
  • A stream restoration, floodplain restoration, or other natural land restoration that helps improve water quality and the functioning of floodplain areas.
  • A private residential road through a flood prone area to access a single-family home outside a flood prone area.
  • There are also strict limitations on fill placement in flood prone areas for development.
  • All other forms of development in the flood prone areas of the Town of Mills River are prohibited, including single-family homes, multi-family homes, and all commercial, industrial, and nonresidential development.

For more information about the new Hazard Prevention Ordinance, please contact Town Planning staff at planning@millsriver.gov or by calling (828) 890-2901.

To read the recently adopted Hazard Prevention Ordinance, please click here.

Flood Insurance

Federally backed flood insurance is not available within the Town of Mills River. The Town would have to adopt a flood damage prevention ordinance that meets Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) minimum standards in order for our jurisdiction to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and have federally subsidized flood insurance available to all Mills River community members. The regulations required to participate in the federal flood insurance program would involve strict regulation of agricultural uses and farming activities on land in Mills River floodplains. This would include costly permitting and flood study requirements that would negatively impact our farmers. Historically, it has been Town Council's stance not to participate in the NFIP to avoid these detrimental impacts on our agricultural community.