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-. F. Community Perspectives from the Past It is important to note that the readjusted floodplain management policy objectives outlined above are not new concepts to Boulder and have been expressed throughout our history. These policies are simply reemerging to recognize the wide range of measures that may be implemented to address flood hazards. They offer options from simple self-help actions, which allow citizens to take personal responsibility to protect themselves from flooding, to significant community efforts to manage and reduce flood hazards. The reintroduction of such policies offers the city an opportunity to realize our original floodplain policy vision. During the twentieth century, highly regarded community voices have made predictions and given warning to the impact of future floods on Boulder. On each occasion, these voices spoke of the need to respect the floodplain for its hazardous risks and beneficial values, and to be concerned with continuing encroachments into the floodplain that will ultimately lead to significant community disruption and loses. These voices which spoke of policies to avoid and appropriately manage flood risks and losses included: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in The Improvement of Boulder Colorado. report to the City Improvement Association, March 1910: "The principal waterway in Boulder is Boulder Creek, and its principalfunction, from which there is no escaping, is to carry off the storm-water which runs into it from the territory which it drains. If, lulled by the security of a few seasons of small storms, the community permits the channel to be encroached upon, it will inevitably pay the price in destructive floods. So with the channel of Sunshine Canon and others of less importance. Trafton Bean, former Planning Director in an April 8, 1959 Staff Report on Flood Plain Policv on the "need for flood plain regulation" to the Boulder County Regional Planning Commission: "Flood damage could be prevented by not building anything in the path of floods or by evacuating to higher ground that development which is already there. Since it is both impossible and impracticable to prevent or remove all development in the flood plains, intelligent planning and regulation of development in these areas is imperative so that damage from floods can be minimized Adequate basic flood data is needed for such planning and regulation. Federal flood-protective structures are not available, or economically feasible to construct, for most communities with minor or infrequent flood problems. " Dr. Gilbert F. White, in the Flood Hazard Reduction and Flood Plain Regulations in Boulder City and County. Colorado report, December 15, 1966: There has been no significant decrease during recent years in the conditions contributing to flood flows in Boulder County. At the same time, the increasing encroachment upon the valley flood plains and the aggressive invasion of the mountain drainage areas is making larger amounts of property subject to possible flood losses. Rapid expansion of urban land use combined with changes in the policies of Federal agencies dealing with flood losses makes it urgent for the city and county to move forward with the regulation of use of the flood plains so as to protect human life and health, to reduce the prospective drain on public funds for relief and corrective works, to prevent victimization of new property owners, and to promote the general welfare. Rarely can the flood hazard in a flood plain be completely eliminated by construction of protective works. Large reservoirs and levee systems are subject to occasional overflows exceeding the design flow. Moreover, it is difficult to fully protect all of the areas in the flood plain by any combination of reservoirs, upstream land treatment, and channel improvements works; some areas will be excluded. Where protection is not feasible or is only partially effective it is desirable for citizens to deal with the threat of flood loss in other ways. " 14