Sacramento Fire Damage Rules: The Levee and the Rebuild Permit

What SB 5 Required

Senate Bill 5, carried by Senator Machado and signed by the Governor on 10 October 2007, restructured flood management across the valley. It added Government Code sections 65007, 65302.9, 65860.1, 65865.5, 65962 and 66474.5, along with provisions of the Health and Safety Code and the Water Code.

Two deadlines drove it. Under section 65302.9, every city and county in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley had to amend its general plan by 2 July 2015 to incorporate the state's flood protection planning data and adopt policies reducing the risk of damage from a two-hundred-year flood event. Under section 65860.1, zoning ordinances had to be amended by 2 July 2016 and made consistent with the amended general plan.

The Legislature declared expressly that flood protection in the Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage areas is a matter of statewide concern and not a municipal affair within the meaning of the state constitution.

Why Does That Declaration Matter?

Because it is what makes the scheme bind charter cities. Ordinarily a charter city may regulate municipal affairs free of conflicting general law. By declaring the subject one of statewide concern, the Legislature removed that argument, so the requirements reach jurisdictions that would otherwise be outside them.

What Section 65962 Does

This is the provision that reaches a fire rebuild, and it is worth stating carefully.

Once the required general plan and zoning amendments have taken effect, a city or county within the valley shall not approve any discretionary permit or other discretionary entitlement, or any ministerial permit that would result in the construction of a new residence, for a project located within a flood hazard zone, unless it finds on substantial evidence one of the things the section lists.

The first of those is that the facilities of the State Plan of Flood Control or other flood management facilities protect the project to the urban level of flood protection in urban and urbanizing areas, or to the federal standard in areas that are not urbanized.

Does a Ministerial Permit Really Get Caught?

The section names ministerial permits expressly, but only those that would result in the construction of a new residence. That qualifier is the whole question after a fire, because it distinguishes replacing a house from repairing one, and a residential building permit for a new house is the paradigm case of what it describes.

Two companion sections extend the same logic. Section 65865.5 bars a city or county from entering into a development agreement for property in a flood hazard zone absent equivalent findings, and section 66474.5 applies the approach to tentative and parcel maps.

The Line a Fire File Sits On

Repair of an existing residence is not the construction of a new residence. Rebuilding on a cleared lot is. The difficulty is everything in between.

A house stripped to its framing, a structure the city has red-tagged, a property where the owner intends to keep a foundation and little else — each of these can be characterised either way, and the characterisation decides whether section 65962 is engaged at all.

So Who Decides Which Side I Am On?

The jurisdiction processing the permit, on the facts of your property. It is not a question a buyer, a contractor or a website can answer for you, and it is worth putting directly to the city or county before committing to a demolition that would settle the characterisation against you.

We publish no conclusions about whether a particular parcel sits in a flood hazard zone, what findings a jurisdiction could make for it, or whether a specific project would be treated as a new residence. Those are determinations for the city or county floodplain and building staff, and they are free to ask.

Why Sacramento and Not Everywhere

Because the exposure here is exceptional. In 2006 the Army Corps of Engineers concluded that the basin north of the American River had less than a hundred-year level of flood protection, owing to deep under-seepage through the forty-two miles of levee around it.

FEMA remapped that basin into Zone AE in December 2008, which halted new residential and commercial construction across much of it. Potential flood depths there exceed twenty feet, and the area holds roughly 80,000 residents together with Sacramento International Airport, Interstate 5, Interstate 80 and State Highway 99.

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency began levee reconstruction with state support in 2007, ahead of federal authorisation, using deep cutoff walls, landside berms and a setback levee. By 2013 roughly 18.3 of the 42 miles had been completed. The building moratorium was lifted in 2015 following redesignation, with the city limiting the number of new residential permits issued each year until the improvement programme finished. Work on the remaining miles began in 2019.

Outside the City, Different Again

Sacramento County contains substantial unincorporated territory alongside the incorporated cities of Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, Galt and Isleton. Each runs its own building department and applies its own general plan and zoning ordinance.

The SB 5 scheme reaches every city and county within the valley, so the framework is regional rather than municipal. What differs between jurisdictions is the mapping, the findings each can make, and the way each department handles the repair-or-replacement characterisation.

How Do I Confirm Which Jurisdiction I Am In?

The county assessor's parcel record names it, free. Postal addresses say Sacramento for a great deal of property that is not in the city, and an application filed with the wrong department is not forwarded to the right one.

What California Adds on Top

Conveyances here carry a documentary transfer tax collected by the county, and some cities impose an additional local charge. It is a genuine cost against the sale price, unlike in the states with no transfer tax at all.

The insurance claim does not have to be resolved before a sale, and who retains the proceeds is negotiated in the contract rather than fixed by law.

Your Options, Compared

Repair what survived. Where the fire was contained, this avoids the section 65962 question altogether, because you are not constructing a new residence.

Rebuild. Straightforward outside a flood hazard zone. Inside one, it depends on findings the jurisdiction must make, so the order of operations matters and demolition is not the first step.

Sell. Transfers the question to a buyer. What you receive depends heavily on whether the buyers bidding have actually asked it.

Across Sacramento and Around It

Exposure differs enormously by basin. The most documented history is covered on our page for that northern basin, while the river-adjacent southwest is covered under the Pocket and Greenhaven. Higher central ground and older stock are dealt with on our pages for Land Park and Curtis Park and Oak Park and the eastern central neighbourhoods, with the American River corridor under North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights and everything beyond the city under the county and the surrounding cities.

The full index is on our service area index.

Rules Questions

Is My Parcel in a Flood Hazard Zone?

Floodplain management staff at your city or county will confirm it for your address, and FEMA publishes the mapping. Both are free and it is the first thing to establish.

I Only Need to Repair, Not Rebuild.

Then section 65962 is likely not engaged, because it reaches ministerial permits that would result in the construction of a new residence. Confirm the characterisation with the department before you demolish anything.

Does This Apply Outside the City?

The scheme reaches every city and county in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, so the framework applies broadly. The mapping and the findings differ by jurisdiction and by parcel.

Primary Sources

California Senate Bill 5 (Machado), approved by the Governor 10 October 2007, as chaptered
California Government Code sections 65007, 65302.9, 65860.1, 65865.5, 65962 and 66474.5
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency — Natomas Basin levee programme records
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA — 2006 determination and December 2008 remapping
City and County of Sacramento — general plan and zoning amendments adopted under SB 5