FEMA Elevation Certification Update

The City of Bismarck is a participating community in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Participation in the NFIP is based on an agreement between local communities and the federal government which states, if a community will adopt and enforce a floodplain management ordinance to reduce future flood risks, the federal government will make flood insurance available within the community as a financial protection against flood losses.

NFIP-participating communities are provided with Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) that delineate Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) throughout the community. Properties within the SFHA are subject to special construction standards. One of those standards is the requirement to maintain documentation of the elevation of new and substantially improved structures to ensure that structures have been built in accordance with the local floodplain management ordinance.

To document the elevation of structures located in the SFHA, the City of Bismarck requires an elevation certificate be submitted to the City of Bismarck Community Development – Building Inspections Division before and after a new building has been constructed or an existing building has been improved.

A “Construction Drawings” elevation certificate is required to be submitted to the Building Inspections Division prior to a building permit being issued and a second elevation certificate; a “Finished Construction” elevation certificate, is required to be submitted to the Building Inspections Division at the completion of each project.

An elevation certificate is a document prepared by a registered professional land surveyor that certifies property information, FIRM information, and building elevation information for a specific development.

FEMA has recently updated the required elevation certificate form that a surveyor must use to document this information.

As of July 7, 2023, all communities participating in the NFIP are required to use the new FEMA elevation certificate; FEMA Form FF-206-FY-22-152 (formerly 086-0-33). The expiration date of this form is 06/30/2026.

The new elevation certificate form can be found on the FEMA website at National Flood Insurance Program Underwriting Forms | FEMA.gov.

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