Dive Brief:
-
Sacramento, CA, could see a building boom in the city’s Natomas area once the Federal Emergency Management Agency lifts a six-year-old restriction that shut down construction in 2008.
-
The Army Corps of Engineers at that time determined that levees along the Sacramento River were not sufficient to protect the area from flooding. But city officials this week said the problem has been corrected and they expect FEMA to lift the building ban this spring.
-
FEMA prohibited commercial or residential construction in Natomas unless the building was raised more than 20 feet so it would sit above potential flood levels. That expensive restriction put a halt to new starts.
Dive Insight:
Natomas was once a hotbed of construction in Sacramento, with hundreds of housing starts each year that supported thousands of construction jobs. Without that industry, the area’s economy has suffered.
City officials have said the return of commercial construction and home building to the region will immediately start about 5,000 housing units that the city permitted before FEMA lowered the boom in 2008.
