Clay Dietrich’s, June 25th, 2015 letter to the editor (LTE) [read more…] is a shameless attempt to justify the greed that represents the Fargo Diversion Authority etal; development agenda.
Without question, the FM Homebuilders Association was behind the Coalition for Cass County Flood Protection measure in 2010, which had/has the identical 1802 32nd Ave S, Fargo, ND office address [read more…].
Compare Addresses:
| Coalition for Cass County Flood Protection | Homebuilders Association of Fargo Moorhead | |
| 1802 32nd Ave S | ←→ | 1802 32nd Ave S |
| Fargo, ND 58103 | Fargo, ND 58103 |
So it begs the question of how benevolent or impartial the intentions might be when referencing the anxieties tied to the 2009 flood event and other aspects of his letter.
Dietrich, as the HBA president touches on three main topics.
Dream Homes
Levee Width
Speak Up
Here are excerpts from his letter to the editor and commentary.
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum My employees and I build people their dream homes. These past two weeks have been trying for my business, my employees and my trade partners as we work to build homes for those being displaced for flood protection in the city of Oxbow. Our customers, with their plans and lives on hold, face uncertainty we can only imagine. |
Oxbow, ND already has flood protection that was built post 2009 flood, wherein, flood impacted homes “at risk” were removed. Perhaps somebody forgot to share Oxbow Mayor Nyhof’s letter to Terry Birkenstock praising his cities near 500 year flood protection [read more…] with Dietrich or the HBA.
There are not currently people homeless or displaced in Oxbow, ND as a result of existing conditions. The home builds being referenced are mitigation tied to future (not current) impacts, “IF” the overall Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project receives the required permits and federal funding.
It is rather curious that Dietrich makes no mention of all other entities faced with potential impacts within the staging and storage area upstream of the proposed Class 1 High Hazard Dam.
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum The state also has concerns because the width of Oxbow’s levees are greater than that of a levee protecting from a 100-year flood event. |
The MN DNR clearly stated its position on the levee width and the U.S. District Judge agreed, issuing a preliminary injunction on May 13th, 2015. Dietrich’s arguments on levee width are a non-starter, after-the-fact attempt to validate misdirection.
Having served as community representative for Bakke residents on Oxbow, Hickson, Bakke Project Design Team, the intentions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and project sponsor was to willfully and “creatively” circumvent the MN DNR concerns by building a 500 year levee width, limiting the height to 100 year and then trying to pass their actions off as “compliance”.
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum Stopping the flood protection efforts in Oxbow hasn’t just put that city at risk. These actions have created economic uncertainty, financial impacts and potential layoffs for my employees, my fellow builders’ employees, and our trade partners. |
Any anxieties created by work stoppage is on the shoulders of the Fargo Diversion Authority and Cass County Joint Water Resource District. They chose to move ahead with an ancillary aspect of the overall project that does not have federal funding, final approval, currently under legal challenge, without all applicable permits and a federal injunction in place.
If these entities aren’t smart enough to read the handwriting on the wall, then one has to question their business acumen.
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum However, it is wrong to be opposed by the same regulatory agency (Minnesota DNR) that encouraged removal of many homes from Moorhead’s floodway, and to build a levee similar to Oxbow’s, and to have our hands tied for helping those owners sacrificing their homes so their neighbors can be protected. |
Self serving “apples” to “oranges” comparison.
The flood protection and home buyout in Moorhead were to address a semi-natural flood event along the natural course of the Red River.
The proposed ring-dike-levee around the community of Oxbow, Hickson and Bakke is for a 100 percent man made event caused by the proposed Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project.
If we are to apply Dietrich’s reasoning, then Moorhead residents should have also received the same 200 – 388 percent buyout benefits that Oxbow property owners have received.
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum This is about our need for flood protection, the F-M diversion, and to speak up against those who are working against it, and saying, “No, I don’t think I am going to idly sit by and let our community be threatened by flood waters that come to us from you, and the watershed area that feeds the Red River of the North.” |
Oh.. come on! Really…?
This isn’t about needed flood protection. The entire Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project is about Fargo’s land grab and development encroachment into the last natural flood plain south of Fargo, ND.
…and the “president” of the Home Builders Association F-M, the entity with a a history of PAC (political action committee) donations to measures and candidates “friendly” to development agendas, wants us to believe he’s objective, unbiased or impartial?
| Clay Dietrich, Home Builders Association F-M June 25, 2015 (LTE) Forum I cannot help but think of their expressions if they had known that in such a short time, some of our upstream neighbors would be actively plotting to destroy the actions to protect our homes and cities from the water that comes from their region during a flood. |
Hogwash! Property owners upstream of the Fargo Moorhead metro area fully support both cities completing internal flood protection to protect their populations and businesses.
However, anyone suggesting that relocating water from the natural flood plain, doubling the geographic boundaries of Fargo over 100 percent, increasing the metro area’s approximate 88 sq mile footprint to nearly 261 square miles, creating a 150,000 acre foot reservoir to hold water during flood events, force residents of Oxbow, Hickson and Bakke to exist inside a ring-dike-levee inside that reservoir, replace an affluent golf course and yet deny all other staging area property owners and farmers just compensation for the “limbo” and “impacts” they are forced to endure…, for the sake of Fargo’s future economic development…, is asinine.
Sorry Clay…, you speak of “caring”.., resort to “scaring”…, and the most “glaring”…, is the greed.
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I recently received from the Cass County Joint Water Resource District records evidencing the payments made to Oxbow by Cass County, the CCJWRD and the state for Oxbow’s existing ring dike, designed by Moore Engineering after the 2009 flood and just recently completed. This is the near 500 year flood protection bragged about by Nyhoff before he sold out. Oxbow is still getting tax payer $ !!!! No kidding, they just got a check in June. Why are we the taxpayer paying Moore Engineering for the same job twice? Consider this info when reading Dietrich’s and Talley’s LTEs.
I picked his “opinion” piece apart just as you did.
What a joke! And I might add that many, many upstream neighbors have filled or thrown a few sandbags in Fargo-Moorhead: One of us might even have worked alongside Dietrich on Moorhead’s sandbag levee in 2009. (I wonder if he remembers our faces?) We have not asked for thanks, just some consideration and to be treated fairly and justly.
Question (and I hope Dave Piepkorn reads this post) : Do you think Fargo’s “in-town” folks who received buyouts were furnished with brand-spankin’-new appliances for their “new” homes? Ask the Diversion Authority how the appliances are being handled in the Oxbow buyouts! I know you will be infuriated by their answer.