City of North Port issues an emergency order temporarily waiving the five-year cumulative substantial improvement requirement

To provide relief to City residents who are struggling with FEMA’s 50% Rule, the City has issued an emergency order temporarily waiving the five-year cumulative substantial improvement requirement for certain single-family residential properties located within the AE flood zone that suffered damage from Hurricane Ian. This means that the Building Division of the Department of Neighborhood Development Services Department will only be looking at the current costs to return the home to a pre-Hurricane lan condition when determining whether repairs to a home reach the 50% threshold. This will enable many more residents to repair their homes without being subject to FEMA’s five-year cumulative regulations. In more simple terms, we are not looking back to any prior work done on the structure, and only looking at the permit that is presented.