After years of work, public meetings and discussion, the Barton County Commission Monday morning approved an updated resolution determining floodplain management in Barton County. The action rescinded previous zoning regulations and resolutions governing the floodplain. 

This was a long process, but it could have been a difficult one, said Barton County Environmental Manager Judy Goreham. Fortunately it wasn’t.

“We took a very proactive approach to involving the public,” she said. “There were a lot of people and a lot of input.”

Change is never easy, she said. “But the more you involve the public, the easier it is to enforce new regulations.”

Both Goreham and Barton County Engineer Barry McManaman told commissioners it was a group effort. It focused on updating and clarifying the zoning guidelines. 

Timeline

In 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Kansas Division of Water Resources started the Cow Creek Watershed Floodplain Mapping Study, McManaman said. This covered portions of Barton, Rice and Reno counties.

To lead this effort locally, the Barton County Cow Creek Working Group was formed. Meetings were held and input gathered.

There were working groups active in the other counties as well.

“There were a number of meetings where they offered their feedback,” McManaman said of the group members. The group included members from across the county.

After a public meeting in April 2017 in Hoisington, there was an appeal process that ran from January through April of this year. After that, the revised plan was sent to FEMA for approval.

A letter of final determination was signed by FEMA in August, giving Barton County six months to update floodplain management documents. Since August, KDWR has signed off on the changes and the matter was referred to the Barton County Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission held a public hearing Oct. 8 to review the proposed revisions, Goreham said. It recommended the county adopt the proposed changes to the regulations and the map as presented. 

The plan will officially go into effect next February, but Goreham said county officials will be enforcing the changes starting now.

Why change?

Most of the changes were clerical in nature, Goreham said.

One highlight is that now all aspects of any new building development in the county must be at least one foot above the base flood elevation (this does not apply to existing structures). This includes heating, air conditioning and other utilities.

“We wanted to take a look back at what we adopted in 2009,” she said. This was when the floodplain regulations were last comprehensively reviewed. 

In addition to the new guidelines, she said the language was cleaned up some. “We wanted to make it easy to understand. I think we’ve done that.”

Changes are only in the Cow Creek watershed, which is the largest in Barton County, but they also affect Rice County and the cities of Lyons and Sterling. Hoisington saw the most changes, and so was the natural location to hold the open house. Claflin saw some changes outside the city limits.

As a result, floodplain maps changed. And, Article 7 of the county’s zoning regulations have been updated.