Salinas, CA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Sec. 34(c) of the flood damage prevention article sets the city's freeboard standard, two feet above the minimum required by the National Flood Insurance Program. For residential construction it requires: in an AO Zone, elevation 'above the highest adjacent grade to a height exceeding the depth number specified in feet on the FIRM by two feet, or elevated at least two feet above the highest adjacent grade if no depth number is specified'; in an A Zone, elevation 'two feet (minimum) above the base flood elevation' using methods in Sec.

' Once the structure is finished, 'the elevation of the lowest floor including basement shall be certified by a registered professional engineer or surveyor, and verified by the building official to be properly elevated,' with that certification due to the Floodplain Administrator both before the foundation is poured and immediately after. Nonresidential buildings may instead be dry floodproofed to the same elevation, watertight, structurally able to resist hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads, and certified by a registered engineer or architect (Sec. 34(c)(2)). Where the FIRM does not supply a base flood elevation, applicants in an approximate Zone A must have one established, either through an engineering study performed by a state-licensed civil engineer, agency data the Floodplain Administrator obtains, or a default of two feet above the highest adjacent grade absent evidence of deeper flooding, under Sec.

31. Manufactured homes carry the same two-foot freeboard under Sec. 48. The freeboard requirement traces back to the flood insurance study and map dated May 4, 1981 and November 4, 1981 respectively, adopted at Sec. 08.