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<br />TO: <br />FROM: <br />DATE: <br />SIBJECT: <br /> <br />Fred Metzler, FEMA Region VIII <br />Brian Hyde, Colorado NFIP Co-ordinator <br />April 7, 1993 <br />Development Activity in Oak Creek Floodplain in Florence, Colorado <br /> <br />On Wednesday March 3l, 1993 1 spoke on the telephone with Nancy Love of Love & Associates <br />in Boulder, Colorado. Since she is the Chair of the Colorado Association of Storm water and <br />Floodplain Managers (CASFM) and 1 am the editor of the CASFM newsletter, we were <br />discussing articles for the upcoming newsletter. During the course of that discussion the subject <br />of the City of Florence came up. Love & Associates is FEMA Region VIII's LMMP contractor, <br />and they are perrorming a LMMP revision of the Oak Creek floodplain delineation for Florence <br />and for unincorporated Fremont County. Since the draft study was near completion, Nancy was <br />going to write a short news item for the Southeastern Regional news portion of the newsletter. <br />(We have divided the state into four regions, and our newsletter regularly includes news from <br />each of the four regions.) <br /> <br />Nancy informed that she had received a telephone call from the surveyor who provided them <br />with topographic data for the LMMP after he had reviewed the copy of the draft study that she <br />sent down to Florence. He claimed to have difficulty understanding why the map looked the way <br />it did. He went on to claim that John Liou of FEMA Region VIII had told them (I will explain <br />"them" shortly) that they could fill I foot in the shallow flooding areas of the floodplain <br />delineated by Love & Associates. To understand the next part of Nancy Love's conversation <br />with the surveyor, you need to be aware that he has some kind of business relationship with some <br />developers who want to develop property in the Oak Creek floodplain. He told Nancy~, on <br />the basis of the comments they claimed were made by John Liou, the developers had recently <br />filled a large area of the floodplain and were either in the process or finished with the process <br />of installing utilities and streets. Apparently no drainageway had been provided, Nancy relayed <br />this information to me during our telephone conversation. <br /> <br />The next day. Thursday, April I. 1993 Mark Matulik had the judging for his annual Flood <br />Awareness poster contest. John Liou and Nancy Love were two of the judges. 1 spoke with <br />Nancy again, and I spoke briefly with John Liou. John acknowledged the situation in Florence <br />but did not elaborate. Nancy gave me a few more details. She did tell me that she was curious <br />about the supposed surprise of the surveyor when he saw the new draft map; he had been at <br />several of the co-ordination meetings in Florence during the course of the study and should have <br />known exactly what was going on. She also said that Love & Associates had offered to prepare <br />a drainage plan for the development that recognized the latest floodplain information and provide <br />a way to accomodate floodwaters in a mannjer that complied with regulatory requirements. <br />Apparently the developers declined that offer. During the course of the poster judging 1 <br />photocopied the FIRMs (current) for the city and for the county and FAXed ~m to Florence. <br />1 simlj\l\ply asked them to indicate on the maps where filling had taken place so we could have <br />some sense of the magnitude of the fill. 1 got no response. <br /> <br />Please understand that the above description of events is subject to some possible error. 1 got <br />things secondhand and I don't remember everything I was told. 1 strongly recommend that <br />everything be researched as much as possible to verify facts. <br />