Elevation Certificates in Santa Cruz, CA

Elevation certificates and LOMA support for property owners in the City of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, from the downtown San Lorenzo River corridor to the creeks and the coast.

Elevation certificates from $1,000 · (510) 543-2220

Elevation Certificates in Santa Cruz: Local Conditions

Santa Cruz has an unusual flood map. The city's own building division notes that the FIRM shows most of downtown and parts of the Beach Area inside the 100-year floodplain of the San Lorenzo River. After the City and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improved the San Lorenzo River levee system, a FEMA Letter of Map Revision dated June 26, 2002 re-designated those areas as Zone A99, and later map editions, including the September 29, 2017 panels, kept that designation. A99 has no base flood elevation, so the city does not require floodproofing or elevated floors there, but the area is still a Special Flood Hazard Area and lenders on federally backed loans still require flood insurance. Applicants for permits in the A99 area sign a notarized floodproofing affidavit choosing whether to floodproof voluntarily.

Outside downtown, the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer for the city shows Zone AE along Moore Creek, Arana Gulch, Branciforte Creek and Carbonera Creek, and coastal Zone VE along the shoreline. These are the parcels where a flood elevation certificate has the most effect, because the AE and VE zones carry base flood elevations that a surveyed lowest floor can be compared against. In a VE zone the EC records the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member rather than just the floor. Some owners in an AE fringe find their ground is actually above the BFE, and that is where a letter of map amendment can take the structure out of the SFHA. In the A99 area a FEMA elevation certificate is still useful for insurance rating, but there is no BFE to win a LOMA against, so we tell owners that up front.

Field work starts with a benchmark tie on the vertical datum the FIRM uses, using GNSS and our Trimble S3 total station. We measure lowest adjacent grade, highest adjacent grade, the lowest floor, garage slab, crawlspace floor, and any machinery or utilities such as furnaces, water heaters and electrical panels, and we photograph each side of the building. Data is processed in Trimble Business Center and the EC is signed by a licensed land surveyor. When the numbers support it we prepare the LOMA elevation data or submit through eLOMA. Work in Santa Cruz is scheduled as a mobilization from our base in the foothills. See our elevation certificate service, nearby Watsonville elevation certificates, and our Santa Cruz surveying page.

Full service details, process, and deliverables: FEMA Elevation Certificates & LOMA · All surveying in Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz land surveying

What's Included

Signed and sealed by a California Professional Land Surveyor
Completed on FEMA Form FF-206-FY-22-152, with the required photographs
Elevations tied to a published benchmark on the flood map’s vertical datum
eLOMA submission as a licensed professional when the building qualifies
Construction-stage ECs for permits: construction drawings, building under construction, and finished construction
Sacramento region, Central Valley, Delta, and Bay Area

Our Process

Address & Flood Map Check

Send the address and the reason you need the certificate: lender letter, insurance quote, building permit, or a LOMA. We pull the effective FIRM panel, flood zone, and Base Flood Elevation before quoting, and tell you up front if a LOMA looks possible.

Benchmark Tie

We tie the site to a published benchmark on the vertical datum the flood map uses, with GNSS and a total station. Every elevation on the certificate is measured from that tie, not estimated from a contour map.

Building Measurement

We measure the top of the bottom floor, the next higher floor, the garage slab, the lowest and highest adjacent grade, the lowest machinery and equipment, and the flood openings, and take the photographs the form requires.

Signed EC, and the LOMA if It Qualifies

You receive the completed, signed Elevation Certificate as a PDF. If the lowest adjacent grade is at or above the Base Flood Elevation, we prepare the LOMA request and submit it to FEMA, through eLOMA when the building meets its criteria.

Elevation Certificates in Santa Cruz: FAQ

Usually not in a useful way. A99 has no base flood elevation, so there is nothing to compare your lowest adjacent grade against. The zone can change only when FEMA revises the map for the levee system. An elevation certificate can still help with insurance rating in A99.

In coastal VE zones the EC records the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member of the lowest floor, not just the floor surface, and notes what is below the building. We measure those members directly and photograph the foundation.

FEMA flood data for the city shows AE zones along the San Lorenzo River, Moore Creek, Arana Gulch, Branciforte Creek and Carbonera Creek. Check your parcel on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center at msc.fema.gov, or send us the address and we will look it up.

Need Elevation Certificates in Santa Cruz?

Elevation certificates start at $1,000. Call (510) 543-2220 with the Santa Cruz address and we'll check the flood map and give you a fixed price.

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Private licensed surveyor, not affiliated with FEMA • Homeowners welcome • Response within 24 hours

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