Diversion authority presents update; DNR recommends quarter‑mile buffer near southern embankment, authority and staff say easements largely restrict development

Eric Dodds, a consultant with AE2S working on the Fargo‑Moorhead diversion project, told Clay County planning officials the diversion is more than halfway complete and that the project team is finalizing a sixth version of its Property Rights Acquisition and Mitigation (PRAM) plan.

Dodds said construction progress slides show the project about 61% complete overall, with the P3 diversion channel about 56% complete, the Corps of Engineers’ southern embankment work about 68% complete and in‑town levee work roughly 80% complete. He said roughly 28,000,000 cubic yards of material have been excavated so far of an estimated 40,000,000 cubic yards total and that about 160 Minnesota parcels have had property rights acquired; upstream mitigation easements are “approaching 60% complete.”

The consultant described three major control structures on the southern embankment — the diversion inlet just south of Horace, the Wild Rice structure adjacent to Interstate 29 and a larger Red River structure — and said the embankment’s southern segment is about 22 miles long with county and township crossings in Clay County at roughly 130th, 140th, 150th and 160th (Comstock Road).

Dodds summarized a DNR permit condition (condition 45 of the dam safety and public waters work permit) that recommends local governments consider prohibiting development within a quarter mile of the dam or along river channels. He said the diversion authority does not have zoning power and had sent letters to local zoning officials — including Clay County, Horace, Pleasant Township and others — to share the DNR recommendation and offer to discuss it.

When asked whether any local jurisdictions had adopted zoning along those lines, Dodds said Pleasant Township in North Dakota has enacted a two‑tier restriction measured from the toe of the embankment: no buildings within 350 feet and broader development restrictions within 450 feet, with a narrow band where nonresidential uses may be allowed. He said Fargo staff had expressed informal interest in avoiding residential zoning immediately adjacent to the embankment but had not adopted formal rules.

Dodds also addressed questions about which lands were purchased. He said the diversion authority purchased property rights for the construction footprint and easements on the wet side to allow intentional flooding; it did not acquire land on the dry side beyond the footprint. He noted that in Clay County the flow easements for the upstream mitigation areas are categorized as Zone 1 in the authority’s system and that Zone 1 easements prohibit development and existing structures.

On flood elevations, Dodds said the top of the embankment is approximately elevation 928.5 feet, the probable maximum flood (PMF) surface elevation is about 923.5 feet (about 5 feet of freeboard at PMF), the 500‑year surface is about 922.5 feet and the 100‑year is about 921.5 feet — roughly 7 feet of freeboard at the 100‑year event. He said breach analyses informed the DNR’s recommendation, concluding that breach depth and velocity effects would dissipate within about a quarter mile in some scenarios.

County planning staff present offered possible next steps, including preparing a build‑out scenario that estimates how many residential units could be constructed within a quarter‑mile buffer under current density rules. Commissioners and staff also noted recent coordination with a solar developer in nearby Wilkin County and said flow easements and the diversion authority’s easement enforcement process had been used to coordinate acceptable siting and elevations of utility infrastructure.

Dodds said the PRAM version 6 consolidates prior versions, aligns mitigation with state and federal permits and with the diversion authority’s settlement agreements, and is being finalized for agency review.