Floodway Designation

UPDATED JULY 19, 2013**

The following is a summary of a discussion with the head of the Alberta government’s flood recovery task force, Andre Courbould after the CBE Rideau / Elbow Park consultation on July 16, 2013.

I will try my best to summarize what I heard but things are still not entirely clear. We have confirmed that someone from Andre's office and other government officials will present at our meeting on Tuesday, July 23 7:00 PM at the Glencoe. It is important to note that the information I captured may not be entirely accurate or complete; please don’t make any big decisions based on what I tell you (I’m not a lawyer but I know enough of them to know when to cover my a$$). More information will released in the days and weeks to come but for now here’s my best interpretation of what I heard. I hope it helps.

''Why Now? ''– He was asked repeatedly why this information was released piecemeal rather than waiting until there was a comprehensive plan. He said it was a deliberate strategy to “give people informed choices”. When pressed on the fact that it’s difficult to make choices with incomplete information he said alternately “but it’s all out there” and “more is coming soon”. He finally seemed to acknowledge that more information is needed and committed to getting more details out soon, likely later this week and continuing over the coming weeks.

Foot bridges – The city is working as quickly as it can to find a temporary solution in time for the school year. No details or firm timelines were available as of Tuesday evening.

100 Year Flood – The floodway / flood fringe designation is based on an international standard of a “100 year flood”, which is interpreted as a 1% chance of that flood happening in a given year. The 2013 event is above what is considered a 100 year flood. All flood prevention going forward will be based on the 100 year flood projection, which we are told explains the discrepancies between what happened on June 21st and the red zone / pink zone map we’ve seen. So far as Andre is aware no major updates to that map are forthcoming in the near term.

Elephant In The Room – I asked if planning based on a 1983 map of 100 year flood zones is wise given what we’ve just gone through and in light of evidence of climate change. He said it’s not something they’re considering and are sticking to their 100 year flood model and maps. He did say anything is possible but for this event all planning is being done based on existing 100 year flood data.

Flood mitigation – Flood mitigation will be done on an individual and a community basis. In response to a question about whether upstream or community level mitigation makes more sense than many individual homeowner repairs, he said the answer is “all of the above”. He seemed to indicate that homeowners in the flood fringe will be expected to do some form of mitigation regardless but that berms or dikes are also a possibility. No decisions have been made about upstream mitigation but it sounds like the province doesn’t believe there’s a silver bullet.

Land Titles – The big question for many was about who gets a notation about floodway or flood fringe status on their land title. Andre said specifically the a notation is only made on land titles of those who accept government aid money. That was news to me but Andre Courbould confirmed it with me in a conversation on July 17, 2013. He said specifically that the government “wants you to rebuild if you’re in the flood fringe”, and yes, that’s a direct quote. As I understand it if you’re in a flood fringe and do not take government money this time, and also do not perform flood mitigation, you will still be eligible for government disaster relief next time and will not have a notation on your land title. If you’re in the flood fringe and take government money but still don’t perform flood prevention you would not be eligible for disaster relief next time. The government seems to be looking at this from the perspective of ‘who gets disaster relief money next time’ rather than ‘how do we prevent another flood from happening’. This is a big issue for us of and we should push hard to ensure proper flood mitigation happens upstream.

Existing Calgary Flood Bylaws and Regulations - Note that the floodway, flood fringe and overland flow areas are already embedded in the City of Calgary bylaws. This also provides the standard for building within these zones. These may be up for change with the recent provincial announcement, but it seemsthe recent announcement uses the existing definitions and regulations as a starting point. Bylaws can be found here. http://lub.calgary.ca/ see Part 3/ Division 3 for flood related areas

City of Calgary Flood Zone Definitions - The City of Calgary defines the various flood zones as floodway, flood fringe and overland flow. It remains to be seen if this is the same definition as the provincial policy announcement, but it seems likely.


 * Floodway = The river channel and adjoining lands indicated on the Floodway/Flood Fringe Maps that would provide the pathway for flood waters in the event of a flood of a magnitude likely to occur once in one hundred years.


 * Flood Fringe = Those lands abutting the floodway, the boundaries of which are indicated on the Floodway/Flood Fringe Maps that would be inundated by floodwaters of a magnitude likely to occur once in one hundred years.


 * Overland Flow Area = Those lands abutting the floodway or the flood fringe, the boundaries of which are indicated on the Floodway/Flood Fringe Maps that would be inundated by shallow overland floodwater in the event of a flood of a magnitude likely to occur once in one hundred years.

Floodway – Those in the red floodway zone are still in limbo. The government has not yet decided whether they will purchase these properties, relax / change zoning rules to allow rebuilding outside of the floodway or mitigate to the point where those properties are redesignated flood fringe.

Flood Fringe – As noted above, houses in the flood fringe are expected to incorporate flood prevention as part of the repairs if you are accepting government money. What exactly constitutes flood prevention is not clear but he said new standards will be coming out in a matter of weeks. The standards will include guidelines about when structures should be raised (which is apparently not very often), when and how buildings should be sealed from the outside and rules about things like moving mechanical and electrical above grade. He said these things like they were trivial but of course they’re not. The promised 15% over and above any government aid money you take will likely only cover a fraction of the costs. I interpret the “choice” they talk about really being about whether we spend the money now to make our houses compliant with flood fringe status or not, and likely take a hit on resale value and / or risk a future flood unsupported by the government.

Overland Flow – **UPDATE JULY 18** Despite what we had been told earlier overland flow areas are considered to be part of the flood fringe. See the Overland Flow page for a complete explanation.

Community – I emphasized more than once that our biggest concern is for the continuity of our community and that we’re looking to the government for leadership in coming up with a comprehensive plan that doesn’t result in abandoned houses or vacant lots scattered throughout our neighbourhoods. This didn’t seem to be his #1 concern but he at least nodded politely. We need to push hard on this point.

What’s Next? – The province will release some sort of decision flowchart later this week, followed in the coming weeks by a flood proofing standard for those in the flood fringe. Beyond that the city will be expected to do an evaluation about what sort of mitigation efforts they are able / willing to undertake; this will be supported by legislative changes at the provincial level that need to be passed in the fall sitting of the legislature. All of this will take time and we will have to be patient.

Community Meeting

A reminder about the community meeting next Tuesday, July 23rd at 7:00 PM in the Glencoe Club West Room. All are welcome and feel free to invite neighbours from Riverdale, Rideau / Roxboro or any other affected areas. See you there.

Greg.