Dive Brief:

• Builders and developers who waited seven years for permission to build in Sacramento, CA’s, Natomas community lined up for permits last week as the city started issuing them for the first time since 2008.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency introduced new standards after Hurricane Katrina and nixed any new building in the area after declaring its levees insufficient to prevent flooding. Last week, the agency gave the Sacramento City Council the go-ahead to allow construction.

• Although the city already started to issue permits, construction will not be allowed until June 16, the last day of the moratorium.

Dive Insight:

Locals are expecting a building boom as pent-up demand for housing and commercial development could turn the community’s many vacant lots into construction sites.

Pre-building ban, Natomas was one of Sacramento’s hottest construction markets, with hundreds of housing starts each year and thousands of construction jobs.