Upland, CA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Chapter 15.56 applies to every special flood hazard area in the city as identified in the 'Flood Insurance Study for San Bernardino County, California and Incorporated Areas,' dated August 28, 2008, together with its accompanying Flood Insurance Rate Maps and Flood Boundary and Floodway Maps, which the city adopted by reference and keeps on file with the city clerk at 460 North Euclid Avenue (§ 15.56.030).

Section 15.56.080 requires a development permit for all proposed construction or other development in the city so the floodplain administrator can determine whether the site is within a special flood hazard area, and bars any development in a mapped flood zone until the applicant has obtained every other permit required by federal, state, or local law. Section 15.56.090 goes further: no development is permitted in a special flood hazard area at all until standards meeting NFIP requirements are adopted, or until FEMA grants a letter of map revision.

The public works director, or a designee, is the city's floodplain administrator (§ 15.56.100), reviewing permit applications, obtaining and applying federal or state base flood data, and notifying FEMA of watercourse alterations or annexations that change the city's boundaries. Variances are narrowly available, only for a lot of a half-acre or less surrounded by existing structures built below the base flood level, and only on findings of good cause, hardship, and minimum necessary deviation (§ 15.56.160). Any violation of the chapter is a misdemeanor (§ 15.56.040).