Fire And Ice: Grand Forks' Rebirth

In the winter months leading up to April 20, 1997, seven blizzards pummeled Grand Forks, North Dakota with a record 98.6 inches of snowfall and a winter of blistering winds over 35 mph. As the snow melted, the Red River kept rising, flooding the town despite residents' exhaustive efforts to hold it back. Finally, fire ravaged the downtown, gutting eleven buildings.

"It was almost surreal. You would go downtown and there was no traffic, no people and no businesses open. Time had just stopped. Fliers in cafes and bars announced bands coming to play April 19th, although the calendar date was now mid-August. Everything seemed frozen almost exactly at the moment the flood and fire hit," remembered Scott Siefker, of Camiros, Ltd.

On May 17, 1998, roughly one year later, amid newly refurbished businesses and the groundbreaking for two new major office buildings, the city held a "Celebration of Thanks" to show its gratitude to its citizens and all those from outside Grand Forks who helped to rebuild the city.

THE BEGINNING

At the behest of HUD, Camiros joined a team of consultants to provide the city with community development and planning related services. Organized by ICF Kaiser, the team included members of EQE International, The Sedway Group and Camiros. Each firm took charge of their respective areas of expertise: ICF Kaiser was charged with the overall management of the assignment and with helping the city establish its housing assistance effort; EQE International developed a city services work program in order to equip and organize the city to deal with the magnitude of the disaster; and the Sedway Group identified and planned for its economic development. Camiros' responsibilities were to identify and respond to key city planning issues brought about by the flood.

Together, the consulting team prepared, and implemented, a work program termed "The First Season of Recovery."

THE FIRST SEASON OF RECOVERY

While a maze of short-term issues needed to be resolved, Camiros, led by Les Pollock, was charged to look beyond the immediate problems and identify how to organize the redevelopment that would emerge after the flood emergency. Three key issues arose:

1. Rebuilding the downtown
2. Finding sites for replacement housing
3. Creating new neighborhoods to replace those which would be modified by new flood protection measures.

THE DOWNTOWN

Four feet of water. Eleven buildings gutted by fire. 315 businesses closed. The symbolic heart of Grand Forks was a virtual ghost town. The key question: "What should we do with the downtown now?"

In many communities, this question is asked rhetorically because the physical plant is in place, the infrastructure is in relatively good condition and the challenge is economic. In Grand Forks, the physical plant was in disarray, the viability of the infrastructure was questionable and there was no economy.

The city organized to answer this question. Mayor Pat Owens formed a "Re-Imaging Downtown Committee." A city-wide charrette was held to respond to the question. The answer? The downtown should re-emerge as the heart of the community.

Camiros, along with others, began to document conditions, both past and present. Before the flood, the downtown was emerging as an entertainment venue as well as a source of young adult and senior housing. There was also a strong office and government employment base.

In addition, Grand Forks had adopted, just prior to the disaster, the "River Forks Plan." This plan covered the downtowns of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, a smaller community of 9,000 people immediately across the river. It encompassed a range of actions to build upon both the developing and established sectors of the economy.

Initial plan concepts built on the direction of this plan and were further reinforced as a result of an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Workshop. The ULI representatives "reaffirmed the viability of rebuilding a downtown area that would become a major center for the region," said John O’Leary, director of the Office of Urban Development in Grand Forks and one of the "Tri-Chairs" responsible for leading the city’s recovery effort.

Grand Forks organized a Downtown Development Commission (DDC) to establish and implement a plan for the downtown based upon the community-wide input it had received through the earlier charrette, workshops and ULI participation.

The plan prepared by Camiros proposes a mixed use center smaller than the old downtown, recognizing the need for compaction and the impact of flood protection measures. It is built upon a base of new investment, and is keyed to the implementation of several catalyst projects which include:

1. Construction of 100,000 square feet of new office space at the 100% corner of downtown, developed by the city and, having as long-term tenants, a major bank, a major law firm and a major accounting firm who were all previously located in, but burned out of, downtown.
2. The re-building of the Grand Forks Herald Building.
3. A new county office building, designed to bring to downtown many of the county employees and services that were scattered throughout the city.
4. The rehabilitated Empire Theater, home of the major repertory theater in town, and a major performing arts venue.
5. The reopening and reconstruction of a major north/south street, Third Street, and the creation of a new town square which would join the downtown to the river and incorporate the new flood protection project.

Many of these projects are publicly financed or the result of public/private partnerships designed to encourage reinvestment in downtown.

"The effort had a positive impact," said Gary Christianson, the Executive Director of the River Forks Commission. "These programs helped people to believe in the rebirth of the downtown and to have reasons to come there, even if there was, as yet, only a modest economic draw."

Much has happened since that time.

"The Grand Forks Herald has moved into its new building. Third Street has just been re-opened. The burned out First National Bank building is being rehabbed. The new county building is under construction," says Mike Maidenberg, chair of the DDC.

Fire damaged buildings have been razed, sites cleared, and interim improvements, such as parking lots or landscaped open spaces, are complete. Downtown now boasts numerous new restaurants and stores - each of which are modern, newly rehabilitated and located within vintage buildings. These help to establish a special character that cannot be duplicated in any shopping mall.

"We’re not just planning, we’re rebuilding," says Maidenberg.

CREATING REPLACEMENT HOUSING AND BUILDING NEW NEIGHBORHOODS

About 80% of the homes in Grand Forks were flooded; many were destroyed beyond repair, especially along the river. This created a displaced population, which would increase after the completion of the final flood protection project.

"The city needed to determine where the new housing should be located. We learned that Grand Forks is a city of neighborhoods and that our replacement housing must be part of an existing or new neighborhood," said Les Pollock of Camiros, Ltd.

Infill opportunities within existing neighborhoods could not meet the estimated housing needs. Camiros suggested building several new neighborhoods in the areas proposed by the city’s recently adopted comprehensive plan.

"The construction of the new Congressional Subdivisions," stated O’Leary, "allowed us to get over 220 units underway before the fall and have people living in an established neighborhood by spring. This was our goal - to create a new housing environment, but to make sure that it was part of a neighborhood."

Even though the homes could be accommodated in these new subdivisions in a fairly expeditious manner, more housing sites were needed to serve the populations that would be displaced over time, as the flood protection project is put in place and the city continues to grow. There was yet another challenge, one that Grand Forks faced even before the flood - that of accommodating housing demand for lower and middle income units. Much of the development industry had seen a lucrative market in building higher value homes. This had reached a point where industries scouting Grand Forks as a possible location believed they could not find an affordable range of housing types for their new employees and, therefore, began looking elsewhere.

The city, to address this situation, opted to establish a new growth area at the city’s south end that would contain a mix of lot sizes to accommodate a range of housing types and incomes.

"Providing a mix of different size housing lots is critical to the long-term future of Grand Forks," said O’Leary, "and the flood has created the opportunity for us to expand the city in a manner that accommodates that need."

The plan prepared by Camiros recognizes the desire for a strong open space and recreational component, and establishes a series of central locations for a new elementary school and a junior high school, built to replace the one destroyed by the flood and intended to serve the southern portions of the city. The junior high is now complete and the city is moving ahead with planning the southern area of the city in a fashion that reflects the mixed lot development plan.

THROUGH FIRE AND ICE...

In April, the headline of the Grand Forks Herald read "Come Hell and High Water." No exaggeration, the city had seen more than its fair share of rain, snow flood, and fire. Yet the city’s optimism was never soured.

"We'll not only come back, but we'll come back better," were Mayor Pat Owens words after the flood.

And, hell or high water, Grand Forks is doing just that.