Wilson Creek land freed for development

WILSON CREEK — The City of Wilson Creek and FEMA reached a compromise and changed a flood insurance study, which doubled the town’s no-build zone last year.

The former no-build area is now called a special flood risk area, which allows people to build, Wilson Creek Mayor Kathy Bohnet said on Monday.

“It’s an improvement,” she said. “We still felt it should have never been.”

In the special flood risk area, people must build on piers. They can fill areas between the piers with wooden panels and insulate, she noted. It won’t be like Louisiana, where lattice is used.

The town’s elevations were also reduced by three feet on the average, which should improve insurance rates, she explained.

The last draft of the study meant people couldn’t build or had problems selling their property in a large part of Wilson Creek’s downtown, all of Main Street and two-thirds of the town’s platted area.

If adopted, the proposed map would have prevented development in the small town of roughly 250 people.

“We did accomplish something by hanging in there and fighting the fight,” she said.

The study is “livable” after meetings were held between the city, FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers.

“They brought their building engineering person and said they would work with us,” she noted. “They said people would be allowed to fill in and insulate. They said they would compromise and work with us on that.”

The city also adopted new elevations, which are now to Wilson Creek’s benefit, well before a Wednesday deadline for flood insurance, she said.

The first flood insurance study was redone because the elevation was considered too high.

But Bohnet believes the likelihood of flooding in Wilson Creek is small.

“We’re coming up on 52 years without flooding,” she said.