Sustainability Evaluation of St. Vrain Blueprint Plan

Longmont’s Public Works and Natural Resources Office put together a Sustainability Evaluation System (SES) tool in order to evaluate the sustainability of projects in terms of social, environmental, and economic considerations. This is often referred to as the “three-legged stool” or “people, planet, profit.” In August of 2017, the SES tool was used to evaluate the St. Vrain Blueprint and come up with suggestions to make the Blueprint more sustainable.thumbnail of Blueprint SES review

Builders Said Their Homes Were Out of a Flood Zone. Then Harvey Came.

In the years leading up to Hurricane Harvey, a wrinkle in the federal flood-mapping system helped a company build homes in an at-risk Houston suburb.

Source:

Builders Said Their Homes Were Out of a Flood Zone. Then Harvey Came.

This recently posted New York Times article (12/2/17) shows that many of the homes and businesses that were damaged in Houston, TX, had been “lifted out of” the flood plain by filling in low-lying areas with dirt.

While the damages from the 2013 Longmont flood didn’t result from infilling, this article does raise questions about whether “taking an area out of the flood plain” is truly possible.

St. Vrain Economic Development Blueprint

At the moment, the St. Vrain economic development blueprint is slated to go before Longmont city council this coming Tuesday, October 17th.

It is Stand with Our St. Vrain Creek’s opinion that any economic development plan should not be approved until flood recovery and mitigation efforts have been completed or, at the least, all flood recovery and mitigation planning has been decided upon.

We’re asking people to attend the council meeting at the Civic Center this Tuesday and perhaps to speak in support of holding off on approval of the plan. Supporters of the creek are encouraged to wear blue.

St. Vrain Blueprint Update

The St. Vrain Blueprint (note that the web site for the blueprint is out of date with the last version of the document being from March, 2017) is a plan for economic development along St. Vrain Creek in Longmont. The blueprint has been slated to go before City Council on Tuesday, September 26th at 7:00pm. However, because the Council is currently going through budget discussions, the blueprint presentation may be delayed until the October 3rd or even the October 10th council meeting.

Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek recommends that any development/redevelopment plan not be adopted before plans for flood mitigation via Resilient St. Vrain are finalized, including where monies to complete the unfunded stretches of the river corridor will be acquired. It just does not make sense to think about the future of development along the river corridor when it’s still uncertain what the corridor will look like following construction and when other documents that should be taken into account, such as the Wildlife Management Plan, haven’t yet been completed.

Stay tuned regarding when the Blueprint will be brought before the council and please consider attending to show your support for balancing economic interests against wildlife and health and human safety concerns.