ISU gathers flood plain info at open house

The City of Red Oak and students from Iowa State University have taken the first steps in gathering floodplain information.
While winter weather made a return, it didn’t dampen members of the community from attending open houses at the Montgomery County Family YMCA and the Agora Coffehaus, where Red Oak residents had conversations with ISU students to discuss their home and neighborhood, flooding and the floodplain, and other community improvements.
Omar Padilla is a community development specialist with ISU community and economic development. Padilla said ISU initially began a partnership with Red Oak roughly five years ago.  
“The Community Economic Development Unit did a rural housing readiness assessment for Red Oak. We looked at the housing conditions, we looked at the housing needs and gaps, we talked to staff, we did a survey of the community, and we got to know the city,” explained Padilla.
From there, they had another event around a year and a half ago which was a Mayor’s Design Workshop.
“Every mayor, including Red Oak’s then-Mayor Shawnna Silvius,  was invited to come and present to a group of faculty and staff from ISU about an issue. One of the issues that was presented to us was flooding, and how a good amount of your housing stock and your neighborhood is in an area that’s prone to floods. This year, when the students in our studio class had the opportunity to take on a project for a community in Iowa, we partnered with Red Oak, and we got the students and the faculty to come in and work with the city,” stated Padilla.
The 25 participating ISU students visited Red Oak a few weeks ago, and Padilla said they will return to the community five or six more times, gathering information.
“They’ll do a walking tour of the area that floods more frequently, and look at the housing condition, and help get the city more tools, more information that they can use to design potential strategies to improve the housing in those areas,” Padilla said.
Additionally, Padilla said the ISU students will regularly be meeting with people in the Red Oak community.
“A big part of any planning process is our engagement with the community. For this project, we are trying to do as good an effort as we can to have engagement with individuals who live or work or know about the flood area in the city, but also any residents who have an interest in the well-being of the community. At the open house, we had several people come in and tell us about their ideas. We had a couple of interactive areas where they could put a dot on a map and give us an idea of where they are from in Red Oak. We were also happy to get perspectives from people who live outside of Red Oak. We want people who don’t live in Red Oak to move here,” Padilla advised.
Padilla said they’re doing everything they can to let everyone in Red Oak know that they’re here.
“We’re going to be in town multiple times over the next few months, and we don’t want the community to not know who we are. We want to let them know what it is that we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what the outcome of this whole process is going to be. When we have that, we’ll come back and we’ll present a report and there will be another opportunity for the community to have an opportunity to ask questions,” said Padilla.
Overseeing the students is Yiwen Wu, assistant teaching professor in urban planning and development. Wu said the project looks at the intersection between housing and the floodplain, and what are some future possibilities to improve or strengthen the condition of the city.
“As we move into March, we’ll come back again to do a survey and a field study to survey the condition of houses and properties in the floodplain area or adjacent to it,” Wu explained.
The collection of information will allow officials to gather thoughts together and envision what Red Oak looks like in the future.
“It’s very much valuable to see what participants think about or envision this place to be. For example, in the next five years or 10 years, what do they want from Red Oak? What are the things that they value the most in the short future? Also, we want to know what are the things that attract them or that they like the most in the community right now. Those are things we’re trying to learn,” stated Wu.
The students visiting Red Oak are undergrad and graduate students from Department of Urban Planning and Development, and it is a studio project.
“This is something they have to finish before their graduation, just like a capstone project. They’re working closely with local community members, and it’s a really good professional practice. Much like if they were doing an internship, they get to work with a real client as part of this process, and work with the community members to get real experience before heading into their respective jobs after they graduate in May,” said Wu.
While there were several other projects the students could have taken on, the opportunity to do the study in Red Oak was very appealing, as Red Oak is one of the examples of small town characteristics with a long history and ever-changing progress.
“The community has been through a lot, so we figured it’s a good opportunity to learn from the community. It’s a good research project and we can replicate the process for a lot of other communities because a lot of them share the similar characteristics. Red Oak has a lot of good stuff here. It has a very strong community. The community spirit is really strong and we love this type of community from the bottom of our heart. Funding for us to do this comes in part from a grant supported by the state of Iowa, so it’s a multi-party collaboration: research, education, teaching and learning,” Wu commented .
Once they’ve spent the summer gathering details, Wu said they’re not here to dictate anything to the community.
“We’re here to provide our analysis, our professional engagement and also study the community and offer some strategies or actionable items. What eventually will be done or considered is up to the city and up to the residents. Whatever comes out from our engagement meetings will eventually inform the process of what the city decides to do in the future, that’s our hope,” Wu explained.
Wu also added they’ve been pleased with the reaction of everyone they’ve spoken with so far.
“Red Oak has been a very welcoming community. We’ve had really good relationships with the folks in the open houses, and also the city administrator and the public officials. We’ve been having very pleasant conversations as right now,” said Wu.
Those who were unable to attend the two open houses are welcome to access a survey and provide further information to the ISU students. The survey can be found at iastate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bfwek2w9AL5cSOi.
While no official dates have been set, Padilla and Wu said they’re hopeful they can have further open house information gathering events in the near future.