On Thursday, August 1 at 7 p.m., members of Peru’s City Council, Parks and Rec Commission and the Peru State College Foundation held a presentation over possible ideas for what could be done with the floodplain land on the north side of the city.
Council member Theresa Westfall led the presentation with comments from Parks and Rec Commission member Nick Novak and PSC Foundation member Jon Firmature. The presentation was open to the public and around 15 Peruvians showed up to hear and add their opinions on the project. Because the land on the north end of Peru is prone to severe flooding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, offered the City funds to buy the properties from citizens living and owning land there so that the risk of displacement would be less in the event of future flooding. Now that the City owns that land, however, they hope to get opinions and ideas from the community as to what should be done with it, as opposed to leaving it as empty lots.
Because FEMA provided the funds used to buyout the properties, the agency is who sets the guidelines as to what can and cannot be built there. According to FEMA guidelines, whatever is put in the area needs to be considered “flood-proof.” This means that, if the land is flooded again, there will be no devastation to the area and no people will be displaced because of the flooding. In this sense, no new concrete can be poured, and no new structures can be permanent, though if a structure, such as an observation tower, would let flood water pass through it unhindered, it would be approved for the area.
