I was hired for this project by a residential real estate developer.  The charge was to create a large house on a large site as a speculative development in a popular residential market in North Dallas.  The project was taken all the way through construction documents to a Building Permit set.  At about the same time we were getting ready to submit for permit, FEMA issued new flood plain boundaries for a nearby creek and a large portion of the neighborhood…which had been developed in the 1960’s…was instantly sitting in a 100-year flood plain.  New construction was subsequently required to have the first floor sit approximately four feet above the current elevation of the existing first floor.  The additional foundation cost and site-grading complexity required by this extreme change in the regulations rendered the project financially unfeasible.