The City of Pendleton is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to adopt an ordinance regulating development within flood hazard areas. According to the most recent maps, more than 400 individual properties within the City of Pendleton are in flood hazard areas. Many (although not all) property owners will be required to obtain flood insurance, even if there is no record of a flood on the property. The development standards limit development within flood hazard areas, including material stored outside.
A downtown is like an organism. It has many elements that may be concealed by the whole. Applying pressure to one aspect of a downtown can have positive or negative impacts to the rest of the system. The consequences of past actions, intended and unintended, have created the downtown we have today. We must understand how the many aspects of a functioning downtown are interrelated if we are to consider making changes.