About 35 people attended the final Resilient De Soto community meeting on May 16 to give input on the flood resiliency plan being developed for the city, which has struggled with flash-flooding from Joachim Creek.
The plan is expected to be completed at the end of this month, said Javier Diaz, urban planner at H3 Studio in St. Louis, which De Soto officials hired in 2021 to create a flood resiliency and mitigation plan for the city. He said the company was happy with the attendance and discussions at the May 16 meeting at the De Soto Community Center.
“(The May 16) public meeting was our last round of public engagement for the process,” Diaz said. “Our next step is to write up the final version of the plan, which will be presented to the city on May 31. This plan will include the goals, objectives, and action items presented to the community, as well as a framework plan for a voluntary home buyout program and a framework plan of the housing and relocation potential for residents in the area.
“After the plan is completed, Buy-In Community Planning will continue work over the next several months with the Citizens Committee for Flood Relief and the city on the buyout application process for interested homeowners in the flood plain.”
Susan Liley, founder of the Citizens Community for Flood Relief, said she was thrilled to see employees from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources at the meeting.
Diaz said those who have weighed in on the plan H3 Studio is working on confirmed the design firm’s proposed goals and objectives, ensuring the plan is targeting the right areas for De Soto’s flood resiliency, community and safety needs.
“There were many ideas which we have heard throughout the process and several new ones from the way technology can help in predicting the occurrence of dangerous events and providing ample warning, to education and awareness methods, and to the way properties are managed and standards and monitored in the flood prone areas,” he said. “At the end of the day, the ideas all came down to two major goals: Helping people and improving the overall quality of life in De Soto.
“It was great to have both local residents’ points of view and the points of view of state agencies like DNR at the meeting, which help solidify the work and unite the community with potential resources.”
Citizens Committee for Flood Relief and the City Council already have taken steps to mitigate flooding.
“The city has invested nearly $4.5 million toward dealing with the challenges over the last decade,” said John Hoal, founding principal of H3 Studio, who was the main presenter at the May 16 meeting.
He said one of the most important improvements was installing a flood gauge in summer 2018 at the eastern end of the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Joachim Creek north of Walther Park. The solar-powered gauge takes around-the-clock measurements of the depth, volume and speed of the water flowing in the creek, which allows the city to better warn residents.
Hoal said the city is looking to continue improving its sewer and stormwater infrastructure.
“They’ve also been incrementally buying out properties in the high-risk area,” Hoal said. “Seven structures, four vacant lots, about 5 acres of land are being turned into a floodable area.”
The floodplain
In December 2021, the city was awarded a $104,500 Community Development Block Grant to hire H3 Studio to develop the flood resiliency and mitigation plan.
For the past year, H3 Studio has been working with city leaders, Citizens Committee for Flood Relief, Buy-In Community Planning and officials with St. Louis University and SLU Community Planning Lab to develop a plan to finance, construct and enact strategies the community members want to see. They’ve had town hall and neighborhood meetings and one-on-one meetings with residents to gain input.
The De Soto floodplain affects 354 homes, 109 commercial properties, an electrical substation, the De Soto Rural Fire Protection District and the De Soto Public Library, officials have reported.
According to Diaz, city employees begin knocking on residents’ doors and warning them to evacuate at the 8-feet flood level. At 10 feet, the De Soto Rural Fire Station 1, 201 East Miller St., is no longer accessible. At 11 feet, crossing Joachim Creek along West Miller Road becomes very challenging, as is getting to and helping those in need on the east side of the town.
Diaz said De Soto has seen an average of one flood event a year since 2017.
According to FEMA, the most recent high was 9.93 feet on July 28, 2022. The worst flood event in the last decade was at 14.3 feet on April 13, 2013.
Diaz said the majority of those who live in the floodplain have low income and/or rent the properties and don’t typically know about the flooding issues when they move in.
“A lot of people who live in the floodplain do not feel safe or prepared to be able to deal with another flood event,” said Kelly Main, executive director of Buy-In Community Planning.” Actually, 73 percent of respondents so far say that they’re not physically prepared to deal with the major flooding event. We have people living with disabilities, senior citizens and other handicapped people who really feel unsafe in the current circumstance that they’re living in.
“And floodway residents (who) experienced flooding, by and large, are ready and willing to participate in the buyout program, but it takes all of the community coming together and saying, ‘Yes, we agree that this is something that the city of De Soto should support in order to dedicate time and energy and resources to making De Soto more resilient overall.’”
Submitting buyout applications to federal agencies and getting funding will take many years, Main said.
Residents or building owners who have experienced flooding may fill out a buyout interest survey at buy-in.org/resilientdesoto. Land purchased from a buyout would remain open space, Main said.
According to H3 Studio, in the past six years, the city has completed multiple studies to better understand and address flooding hazards along Joachim Creek, including the Upper Joachim Creek Floodplain Management Plan (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers); Joachim Creek Flood Study (U.S. Geological Survey); and the De Soto Emergency Action and Evacuation Plan.