Letter to Decorah Planning & Zoning Commission members says building a Menard's in the floodplain "would only worsen flooding when it occurs along the river."

"We are writing in opposition to Menard's request to rezone the floodplain so they can build there.  That would only worsen flooding when it occurs along the river.

Menard's claims their store would not have any impact on flooding because they would not be bringing in fill--all the fill would come from the pond they plan to dig.  This might be true if the pond were normally empty, but instead it would always be at least partially filled with water because of its location (near the Upper Iowa River), much like Bruening's pond is now.  This would largely negate its flood storage capacity.  Also, the material removed from the pond would no longer absorb and infiltrate rainwater as it does naturally, but instead would be covered with roofs and a parking lot that create more rainwater runoff.

Menard's representative says that Ames allowed them to build in the floodplain, so why not Decorah?  That is a poor argument because Ames and Decorah are quite different geologically.  In Ames the Skunk River has an unusually wide valley that was created during glacier times.  In Decorah the Upper Iowa River has a relatively narrow, steep-sided valley.  The two situations are not analogous.

We have heard people say that Decorah allowed Gundersen and Walmart to build in the floodplain, so now we have to allow Menard's to do the same.  But do we really have to keep repeating the same mistake?  One sign of intelligence is that we learn from our errors.

It doesn't matter to us whether Menard's builds a store elsewhere in the Decorah area--we can think of both positive and negative outcomes if they do.  However, we urge you to reject their request to fill and build in the floodplain.  Iowa's climate is getting wetter and more erratic, and as a result flooding will be even more likely in the future.  Why add to the problem?"