Lake Elsinore, CA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Lake Elsinore Municipal Code § 15.64.300 applies the City's flood damage prevention regulations to all areas of special flood hazard within City jurisdiction, covering subdivision of land, site improvements, utility installation, manufactured home and recreational vehicle placement, new construction, substantial improvement, tank installation, and temporary structures. Section 15.64.310 establishes which areas count as special flood hazard areas: the City joined the National Flood Insurance Program on September 17, 1980, and adopted by reference FEMA's Flood Insurance Study for Riverside County, California and Incorporated Areas dated August 28, 2008, along with all later amendments and revisions; the study and FIRM/FBFM maps are kept on file at the City's Engineering Department, 130 South Main Street.

Section 15.64.320 requires full compliance with the chapter before any structure or land is constructed, located, extended, converted or altered in a mapped flood hazard area, and makes violations, including breach of a permit or variance condition, a misdemeanor handled under Chapter 1.16 LEMC. Section 15.64.330 makes these flood regulations supersede any conflicting City ordinance while leaving other land-use, subdivision, stormwater and building regulations intact, applying whichever rule is more restrictive. A development permit under Section 15.64.400 is required before any construction or development, including manufactured homes, within an area of special flood hazard, and the Floodplain Administrator, appointed under Section 15.64.410, reviews applications, determines base flood elevation data where FEMA has not mapped it, and enforces compliance, with appeals of Floodplain Administrator decisions going to the City Council under Section 15.64.430.