Special Ordinance and Administration Committee Meeting
Ordinance 2025-054 to amend Amesbury’s Wetlands and Floodplain protection regulations to align with FEMA’s updated Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) was referred to the full City Council with a positive recommendation; the Subcommittee requested the Planning Director provide redline edits for the June 24 Council meeting.
The Subcommittee met to review Ordinance 2025-054, which would amend the City’s Wetlands and Floodplain protection regulations to comply with FEMA’s updated Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) that become effective July 8, 2025. Planning Director Nipun Jain presented an overview of the required changes and confirmed that the updated maps have changed and will be available in the Clerk’s office. Councilors discussed wording, formatting, and typographical issues; Councilor Wheeler submitted a list of language and formatting questions and the Planning Director noted much of the regulatory language mirrors state documents.
Attorney Bethany Raffa joined and recommended specific edits: use the actual report dates (not the effective dates) for the FIRM and FIS references and change the global term “bylaw” to “Ordinance” where applicable. The Planning Director expressed concern about including Councilor Wheeler’s full list of comments in the draft to avoid potential confusion. The Subcommittee voted 3-0 to refer Ordinance 2025-054 to the full City Council with a positive recommendation and requested that any redline edits from the Planning Director be provided to the Council for its June 24 meeting. There were no public comments.