Back in 2019, we wrote a post about the surprising connection between the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). That post concluded with the following:

It looks like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be forced to address ESA compliance on a state-by-state basis, unless it can develop a nationwide approach that adequately describes its role in floodplain management and tailors NFIP implementation accordingly (a daunting task).

Here we are in 2023, and FEMA has now started to halt processing of Letters of Map Revision (LOMR) and Conditional Letters of Map Revision (CLOMR) in multiple California counties in order to provide time to carry out consultation on whether NFIP implementation in California impacts protected species. All applications for LOMR-F (LOMR based on fill) and CLOMR-F (CLOMR based on fill) in the affected counties are being suspended during FEMA’s consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on implementation of the NFIP in California.

So far, applications have been halted in the following counties and cities:

• Los Angeles County
• Orange County
• San Diego County
• San Luis Obispo County
• Santa Barbara County
• Ventura County
• Sacramento County
• Placer County
• City of Sacramento
• City of Woodland

The halting of applications affected only CLOMR and LOMR applications that involve the placement of fill. Projects that involve fill for buildings, such as housing projects and projects that involve elevation of buildings to address floodplain concerns, could be impacted.

This author is working to get additional information about the anticipated timing of consultation. As a comparison, consultation took over four years in both Washington and Oregon.

I will update this blog as I learn more about the timing and impacts of these developments.

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