Elevation Certificates

An Elevation Certificate is a form created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as a compliance and insurance tool within federally mapped floodplains. The certificates verify that structures are safely elevated above the expected 100-year flood level and that they meet other floodplain requirements. Insurance companies utilize the certificates to determine flood insurance premiums for homeowners within flood hazard zones.

While the use of the FEMA Elevation Certificate is required by the federal government within federally mapped floodplains, the District also requires its use in locally mapped floodplains. The Ordinance requires Elevation Certificates to be completed by an Arizona registered land surveyor or Arizona registered civil engineer. Although Elevation Certificates may be completed by other individuals for insurance purposes, the District cannot accept an Elevation Certificate that is not completed, signed and sealed by a registered land surveyor or engineer.

Check our list of completed Elevation Certificates to see if a certificate is on file for your property.

ELEVATION CERTIFICATE INFORMATION FOR SURVEYORS

The current Elevation Certificate is dated March 2009 and expires March 31, 2012. Effective January 1, 2010, use of the new FEMA Elevation Certificate is required. Elevation Certificates using the old form will not be accepted after January 1, even for permits issued prior to that date. The new Elevation Certificate contains some fairly significant changes, so surveyors and engineers should familiarize themselves with the new form by carefully reviewing the FEMA instruction manual and the Districts Elevation Certificate Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

The District is currently requesting surveyors and engineers completing Elevation Certificates to establish a local datum of 100.0 feet at Highest Adjacent Natural Grade (HANG) for FEMA A Zones and local sheetflow floodplains.  The District will indicate the BFE in box B.9 of the Elevation Certificate as 101.0 (for example) and indicate that the datum is HANG = 100.0 ft.  Please see the December 20, 2011 memo to surveyors and engineers for more information.

The District has also created a fillable PDF Elevation Certificate form. This form has certain common fields pre-filled in, and also contains drop down menus to aid in the efficient and uniform completion of Elevation Certificates. The form will also populate repetitive fields automatically. Surveyors and Engineers are encouraged to utilize this form.

Elevation Certificate Workshop Announcement

No workshops are planned at this time.