After 7 Years, Natomas Construction Ready To Resume
NATOMAS (CBS13) — Tuesday will mark the first time construction can begin in Natomas after a seven-year building moratorium ends.
Construction crews readied themselves on Monday to get started as soon as the moratorium officially ended on Tuesday. Homes in partially build subdivisions could be finished by later this summer.
"I think over the next couple of weeks you'll start to see things going vertical in Natomas," said Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.
The city has received more than 1,000 applications to build, she said. All of them were from existing construction projects that were already partially completed.
Construction came to a halt in 2008, three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana. In the wake of the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised standards for levees, changing previously approved levees to substandard. That meant three years and thousands of miles from the storm, construction halted in Natomas.
The impact stretched beyond new homes. The moratorium also stopped a dozen families whose homes were damaged by fire from rebuilding.
A revised FEMA flood map goes into effect on Tuesday, allowing construction to resume.
Josh Wood, executive director of Region Builders, says the move means thousands of new jobs for local construction workers.
"We are going to see subdivisions of homes going up; we are going to see commercial buildings going in place," he said. "Right now a lot of people who do have companies have been driving to the bay area in order to do work."
Wood says new home and commercial construction in Natomas will have a focus on water and energy efficiency.
"Buildings today are the cleanest, safest, most environmentally friendly buildings that we have ever had," he said.
But longtime residents like Bill McCullough are concerned about construction noise and an influx of new neighbors.
"I kind of like it on the quiet side, but it's inevitable with the slabs being here, eventually someone would have to come back and finish that up," he said.
The city will allow 1,000 new single-family homes and 500 multi-family homes with unlimited commercial construction in the first year.
Meanwhile, 24 miles worth of levee improvements around the area still need to be completed.
