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SACRAMENTO-

Tuesday’s presidential signing of a bill that could soon lift the Natomas building moratorium comes too late for at least one family.

The Taylors learned the hard way that the building moratorium is also a reconstruction moratorium. The family’s Azevedo Drive home in the South Natomas area of Sacramento was badly damaged in an August 2012 electrical fire. They planned on rebuilding.

“We got a contractor, got estimates, went down to the building department, and found out that we couldn’t rebuild,” said Jennifer Taylor.

The Taylors were shocked to learn that the moratorium the Federal Emergency Management Agency places on new construction projects in Special Flood Hazard Areas (including Natomas) also applies to the reconstruction of homes that are damaged in those areas. In these cases, any repairs that cost more than 50 percent of a home’s pre-damage value are forbidden.

“The neighborhood is safe enough for people to buy here,” Taylor pointed out. “It’s safe enough for people to live here. Then it should be safe enough for people to be able to repair your home.”

The Taylors considered a loophole that would have allow them to get around the restriction by rebuilding their home 25 feet off the ground. But that wasn’t practical.

“You can’t a have a three-and-a-half, four story building here, with neighbors so close,” said Taylor.

After a struggle with their insurance company, after which, Taylor said her family received a settlement that they combined with savings to buy a new home. But they are still stuck with the charred Azevedo Drive home which is surrounded by a chain link fence.

“We’re having to pay taxes, we’re still having to pay sewer fees…the county utilities, the city utilities,” Taylor explained. “We’re stuck. We’re in limbo.”

No buyer wants to take on a property they can do nothing with, she said. The Taylors are waiting for the building moratorium to be lifted so they can sell.

While the Tuesday passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 is a major step toward Sacramento levee repairs resuming and the removal of Natomas from the list of Special Flood Hazard Areas, it will still likely take several months for the flood maps to be redrawn and the Natomas building moratorium to be lifted.

As far as Taylor is concerned, “It’s definitely too little too late.”

“We’ve lost our home. The home we thought we’d raise our children in. The home we thought we’d retire in, that we’d own for 15 years, is just gone.”

The Taylors are speaking out to accomplish two things to help others who may find themselves in situations similar to theirs: They want Natomas area realtors to disclose to all buyers that homeowners could find themselves unable to rebulid after a fire during the moratorium. And they want Federal law modified to allow homeowners in FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas to reconstruct after a fire or similar disaster.

Congresswoman Doris Matsui authored such a bill, but it has yet to be voted on.