What Actually Happened Here
Worth setting out plainly, because half-remembered versions of it circulate and they affect what buyers believe.
In 2006 the Army Corps of Engineers determined that the levee system around this basin provided less than a hundred-year level of flood protection, because of deep under-seepage through the forty-two mile perimeter. In December 2008 FEMA remapped the basin into Zone AE, and construction across much of it stopped.
The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency began reconstruction with state funding in 2007, ahead of federal authorisation, using deep cutoff walls, landside berms and a setback levee along part of the Sacramento River east levee. By 2013 roughly 18.3 of the 42 miles were complete. The moratorium was lifted in 2015 after redesignation, with the city capping the number of new residential permits issued each year until the programme finished, and work on the remaining miles began in 2019.
Does the Old Moratorium Still Affect Me?
Which Makes the Repair-or-Replace Line Sharp Here
Section 65962 reaches ministerial permits that would result in the construction of a new residence. Repairing a damaged house is not that. Rebuilding on a cleared lot plainly is.
So in this basin the single most consequential decision an owner makes after a fire is frequently whether to demolish, and it is often made early, casually, and on a contractor's advice. The full position is on our page covering the levee and the rebuild permit.
Should I Hold off on Clearing the Lot?
We publish no flood zone determinations or permit outcomes for individual Natomas parcels. Mapping and findings are matters for city floodplain and building staff, and both are free to ask.
The Stock Is Mostly Recent
Much of the housing here went up during the growth decades before the 2008 remapping, which means engineered roof trusses and floor systems and slab-on-grade foundations throughout.
That matters after a fire. Engineered assemblies exposed to heat come out whole rather than being repaired in sections, so a fire reaching the roof structure here more often produces a replacement than the same fire in older stock. And heat damage to a slab is invisible, which makes it the largest unknown on most files.
The unhappy interaction is that the construction type pushes toward replacement while the basin position makes replacement the harder route. Establishing both early is worth more here than anywhere else in the region.
Natomas in Context
Where a comparable leveed position meets slightly older stock, see our page about the Pocket and Greenhaven. Where ground is generally higher and the housing far older, see our page for Land Park and Curtis Park.
The Numbers Behind the Basin
Forty-two miles of levee ring this basin. The Corps of Engineers found it below a hundred-year level of protection in 2006, FEMA remapped it into Zone AE in December 2008, and roughly 18.3 of those 42 miles had been rebuilt by 2013.
The moratorium was lifted in 2015 and work on the remaining miles began in 2019. Potential flood depths here exceed twenty feet, and about 80,000 people live inside the perimeter. The governing statute, Government Code section 65962, arrived with SB 5 on 10 October 2007.
Natomas Questions
Can I Still Build in Natomas?
The moratorium ended in 2015. What applies now is the findings requirement for flood hazard zones, which is a different mechanism and turns on your parcel and the jurisdiction's evidence.
Buyers Keep Asking About the Levees.
Reasonably so, and the history is public. A buyer who asks is doing the work; one who does not has priced a project without checking whether it can be permitted.
Will You Buy in Natomas?
Yes. The flood position affects the figure and it does not stop us buying, and we will tell you what we found rather than quietly discounting for it.