Elevation Certificates in Redding, CA

Redding is the Shasta County seat, and the Sacramento River runs right through it. Upstream, Shasta Dam gives the city a considerable degree of flood protection, but it is not unlimited: the dam can control flows up to about 79,000 cubic feet per second, and river flows exceeded that in 1970 and 1974. Flooding in Redding is generally limited to the land near the river, which is why flood zone questions here tend to come from a fairly specific set of properties: river-adjacent homes, lots along the creeks that drain to the river, and new construction on lower ground.

Two houses a few blocks apart can be in very different situations. One may sit well above any mapped floodplain and need nothing, while a neighbor closer to a creek is inside a Special Flood Hazard Area and receives a flood insurance requirement from the lender. The FIRM is the deciding document. Look up your parcel on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, note the zone and any Base Flood Elevation, and ask the City of Redding or Shasta County, depending on where the parcel sits, what they require for a permit. If the building looks to be near a zone line or a little above the BFE, that is when a survey pays off, since it can support a Letter of Map Amendment for the structure.

Our work on a Redding flood certificate is the same as anywhere: a benchmark tie on the FIRM's vertical datum, lowest and highest adjacent grade, the lowest floor and any garage, crawlspace, or basement, flood vents, and the elevation of machinery and utilities, plus the building photos and a signed FEMA elevation certificate. Sloped lots often show a large spread between highest and lowest adjacent grade, and we record both. If the structure qualifies, we prepare the LOMA and submit through eLOMA as a licensed land surveyor. Redding is the farthest of our northern cities from Lotus, so it is always a planned mobilization. See our elevation certificate service and pages for Red Bluff and Chico.