Post-flood anger unleashed

Lyon residents demand a better permitting process so that damaged homes can be fixed.

lyons» Town leaders on Tuesday evening got an angry earful from residents fed up that they are still unable to make repairs to — and in some cases move back into — homes damaged by Colorado’s historic floods nearly two years ago.

About 40 residents who live near the confluence of North and South St. Vrain creeks packed Town Hall, lambasting town board members for more than 90 minutes about what one resident called a “culture of ‘No, you can’t. No, you can’t. No, you can’t’ ” in Lyons.

Most complaints centered on the confoundingly long process of getting permits from the town to do repairs, revamps or rebuilds for homes slammed in September 2013 by a rainbloated, out-of-control St. Vrain River.

Nancy Arp said she put in a request with the town for a new fence 11 weeks ago and was told she would need to conduct a $5,000 engineering study first.

Until she gets the fence built, she can’t run her day-care business on Park Street.

“I don’t need studies done and more hoops to jump through. I need a fence,” Arp told the town board. “What’s being done to us is morally wrong.”

One resident said the process of trying to secure a floodplain permit for repairs to her home — she finally received one this summer — was so frustrating and fraught with setbacks that she had contemplated taking her life.

“We’ve come to say, ‘Enough,’ ” she said through a cascade of tears, as neighbors put their arms around her.

Resident after resident described submitting repair or building plans to the town’s engineering department only to have them returned with requested changes to be made. When new plans with the desired changes were turned into the town, the homeowner would receive a whole new set of items to address.

In the back and forth of paperwork, months would often go by — a process one resident described as a war of “escalating engineering studies.”

“In the two years since the flood, we have been living in a camper or in our business,” Cat Wechsler said.

Wechsler said she and her husband submitted to the town an application for a permit six times. Their situation is still not resolved, she said.

“This town needs more engineers working with residents,” she said.

Much of the blame for the numerous delays in reviewing building plans was leveled at Lyons’ engineer Jim Blankenship, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

Trustee Dawn Weller apologized, saying she “lost touch” with the neighborhood at the west end of town.

“We thought we were doing right by you,” she said. “I think there is going to be strong commitment from this board to wade through this mess.”

Mayor John O’Brien acknowledged that Lyons needs to be “more efficient” in dealing with residents trying to turn their lives around from Colorado’s most expensive natural disaster.

“We know this is an important issue, and we want to raise it to another level,” he said. “Don’t give up.”

Several residents urged town leaders to hire more engineers to help go through applications more quickly.

Resident Rick DiSalvo said that would alleviate the bottleneck that exists now.

“It’s an adversarial process to getting a permit — and it shouldn’t be,” he said. “People are living in RVs and in makeshift quarters.”