Elevation Certificates in Sacramento, CA

Sacramento sits where the American River meets the Sacramento River, and much of the city depends on levees. The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) was formed at the direction of the State Legislature in 1989, and its board includes the City and the County of Sacramento. The Sacramento River east levee runs about 12 miles from downtown to Freeport and protects essentially all of the city south of the American River and west of Highway 99. That covers Land Park, the Pocket and Greenhaven. Because of deep underseepage, the Army Corps began more cutoff wall work there in 2019. On the American River, erosion protection along both banks is meant to let the system carry sustained flows of up to 160,000 cubic feet per second. FEMA's current Flood Insurance Study lists Zones A, AE, AH and X inside the city, and the City's 200-year floodplain requirements took effect in July 2016.

Natomas works differently. FEMA remapped the basin into Zone AE in December 2008 after the Corps re-evaluated its levees, which the City calls a de facto building moratorium, since some areas would have needed floors raised up to 20 feet. On June 16, 2015 the basin moved to Zone A99, an interim high-risk zone that allows construction while the levees are finished. Of the 42 miles of levee around the basin, SAFCA and the State completed 18.3 by 2013, and the Corps started on the remaining 24 miles in 2019. Federally backed mortgages in Natomas still need flood insurance. Since July 1, 2024, a new home or substantial improvement in the A99 zone must put its lowest floor at least one foot above the highest adjacent 100-year hydraulic grade line of the City's drainage system and at least 18 inches above the controlling overland release point, documented with a signed elevation certificate. The FIRM shows no base flood elevation in A99, so in Natomas the EC is mainly a permit and insurance-rating document rather than the basis for a LOMA.

The field work is the same anywhere in the city. We tie a benchmark on NAVD88, the datum of the Sacramento County FIRM, shoot lowest adjacent grade, the lowest floor, the garage slab and machinery such as HVAC units, photograph the building, and certify the EC. In AE and AH areas, if the ground at the house is at or above the BFE, we can prepare the data for a letter of map amendment and file it through eLOMA when it qualifies. See our elevation certificate service, nearby pages for West Sacramento and Elk Grove, or our Sacramento area page.