‘Tyranny of Small Decisions’ Update: Checkmate or Touche?
I authored a short article in News & Views in October 2003 (Leitch 2003) expressing my opposition to a development in the Red River floodplain in northwest Minnesota. The development, Oakport Estates, included six residential lots on a peninsula in the floodplain of the Red River of the North. Moorhead lies on the east bank of the Red River, stretching out for approximately 6 miles. My conclusion was that “It is likewise difficult to prevent socially irresponsible floodplain development because the approval process includes of many steps, decisionmakers, and allowances for exceptions, each of which seems innocuous when viewed in isolation.” I suggested that comprehensive water management planning might be a solution.
The very next issue of News & Views included a one-page article (Langness 2003) that criticized my article. The author explained that Minnesota had been granted FEMA exceptions to NFIP prohibition of basements in SFHAs. The final two sentences were “Six new homes are likely to be the result. I call that a triumph of local decision-making”.
Fast forward 20 years to the present, and we see that those new homes in Oakport Estates were among the last 14, or so, homes on the City of Moorhead’s flood buyout list. Only four of the six cul-de-sac lots had been built on by 2020. And, yes, they were built to standards to elevate them above the floodplain. Unfortunately, they are on a dead-end road with their only access being about ½ mile of a gravel city street (40th Avenue North) which is in the floodplain.
In 2020 the City offered to buy all 14 houses and two vacant lots along 40th Avenue North. After about a year of negotiating, eight homeowners and the owners of the vacant lots took the City’s buyout offer. My home, which was built in 1992 and had never flooded, was among those bought by the City and demolished. It would have cost the City in excess of $2 million to buy the four newer cul-de-sac homes, but the owners refused the City’s offer. The City bought the vacant cul-de-sac lots for more than $100,000. The homeowners refusing the City’s buyout were told “don’t expect any help from the City if/when it floods.” I’d argue that it is not a “triumph of local decision-making” as claimed by Langness in 2003.
But there’s more to the story. The FM Diversion Authority is a couple years into a multi-year project to construct a 30-mile diversion of the Red River around Fargo to the West. This $3+ billion project, expected to be completed in 2027, will allow the Red River mainstem flowing between Fargo and Moorhead to get no higher than 37’, effectively preventing any flood damage to structures (including the existing and former residences along 40th Avenue North). Go figure! At this point I’m not sure who wins, but it isn’t the taxpayer.
References:
Langness, Bruce. 2003 (December). “The Triumph of Small Decisions.” Association of State Floodplain Managers, Inc. News & Views 15(6):3.
Leitch, Jay A. 2003 (October). “Floodplains and the Tyranny of Small Decisions.” Association of State Floodplain Managers, Inc. News & Views 15(5):1,10-12.
Jay A. Leitch retired from North Dakota State University in 2010, where he taught/researched natural resources economics, primarily water issues.
