Real Estate & Property Law

Floodplain Proposals Cause Havoc in North Fort Collins

By Alan Ackerman

    In Colorado, the method of setting aside land so that there won't be preservation of the floodplain hydrogeologics is raising havoc in North Fort Collin, Colorado.  The problem is one in which owners do not understand that if they totally develop the properties, the retention of waters may not occur.  If there is no retention of water, somewhere between their property and owners downstream, either in terms of water flow or simply because the 'downstream' owners are at a lower land level, will face a severe flooding issue.  The water still flows downhill, and somewhere along the way, the flow must be limited to the agricultural rate or there will be a problem of flooding downstream.  Communities frequently preserve specific areas in order to protect flooding in downstream areas.  Without such protection, owners will have difficulty in obtaining flood insurance from the federal government.
    This is a tricky process, but the goal of most communities is to make sure that people within the community are safe and flood insurance is available.  

coloradoan.com

On Wednesday morning, those same business owners blasted City Council for considering a water board recommendation to prohibit building within the city's 100-year floodplain, including much of the property along North College Avenue.

Current standards allow for some building with the Poudre River's 100-year floodplain. A 100-year flood is defined as an event that has a 1 percent chance of happening in a given year.
It's very hypocritical that the city would spend millions of dollars to do all these plans to mitigate the floodplain, then turn around to take X number of acres from buildable inventory," said Greg Woods, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Group that helps advise the council on North Fort Collins development issues.

Woods likened it to eminent domain - the seizing of property by a government agency - but without compensation.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on September 02, 2010 (boomark / email).