Marking four years since Goshen experienced its largest flood event in recorded history, City staff has finalized a draft plan to better understand the challenges and possible solutions to flooding impacts.
A draft of the City of Goshen’s Flood Resilience Plan is now available for public review. The plan can be found online at www.goshenindiana.org/flood-zone. Printed drafts can be found at the Goshen Public Library, City Hall and the Utilities Business Office. The City also is collecting feedback. Residents can go to bit.ly/goshenfloodsurvey to give their input.
“The City of Goshen continues to learn about the floodway and its impact on our community,” Mayor Jeremy Stutsman said. “Our dedicated staff has put tremendous effort in looking at ways we can minimize those effects from flooding.”
City staff will hold a public meeting to present and discuss the drafted plan at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 17 in the Goshen Theater.
City staff and Mayor’s office have been working with Christopher Burke Engineering, LLC (Indianapolis) since late 2020 to draft a comprehensive flood plan for the city. In the wake of historic flooding in February, 2018, the City has recognized the need to address the persistence of flooding in Goshen, and the likelihood of increasing flood events in the future.
The public meeting will include input from City staff regarding the history of flooding in Goshen and an assessment of our vulnerability to future flooding; it will also include an overview presentation of the draft Flood Resilience Plan by Christopher Burke Engineering associates. Following these inputs there will be time for questions and discussion with the public, including an informal, open-house style opportunity to talk directly with staff.
Aaron Sawatsky-Kingsley, Director of the Department of Environmental Resilience, said the plan would help the City think about ways to minimize the effects of flooding, from damage, to costs, to clean-up.
“It’s a broad plan with a lot of ideas – that can’t all be accomplished at once – but seeing that we’re likely to experience more flooding over time, it’s really important for us to see what the options are,” he said. “There are things we can do to adapt to more water, and things which we can do to mitigate the impacts.”
In addition to the draft plan, the webpage at www.goshenindiana.org/flood-zone houses important information to allow residents to learn and make informed decisions about flood risk. The page contains tools for understanding the river gauge, the locations most at risk for flooding in Goshen, and Goshen’s flooding history.