What is the legal status of the CU-South Campus berm?
Construction of a berm on the CU-South campus property was originally approved by the Boulder County Planning Commission on February 20, 1980 under Special Permit #AR-79-4. The permit approved construction of an embankment and channel in the South Boulder Creek floodplain to provide flood protection for sand and gravel mining. The berm was approved as a “land feature” in the floodplain and was not proposed as an official flood protection levee to remove property from the 100-year floodplain. Removing the land use floodplain zoning with a flood protection levee would have required review and approval by the Board of County Commissioners. The area landward of the berm remained in the 100-year floodplain as delineated on the 1979 Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) for Boulder County. The CU-South Campus area landward of the berm was removed from the 100-year floodplain following the completion of the 1987 Greenhorne & O’Mara Flood Hazard Area Delineation (FHAD) for South Boulder Creek as ado
