FORT WAYNE – If the Flood of ’03 was a wake-up call, its sequel just 18 months later in January 2005 was a full-blown alert: Something had to be done about flooding in the city.

In response, city officials proposed a bold plan. Rather than wait for another massive investment from the federal government, the city would build flood protection on its own, largely following federal plans made in the 1980s that were never carried out and covering most of the cost with monthly stormwater fees.

The city could not afford to wait, officials said: The Flood of ’03 – which began this weekend seven years ago – damaged 400 buildings and cost tens of millions of dollars.

Among the plans offered was a concrete flood wall along the St. Marys River in the West Central neighborhood to protect the historic homes there.

“Of course, nobody wanted a 10-foot concrete wall along there,” said Charlotte Weybright, who lives at West Berry Street and Thieme Drive.

Not only would the wall block neighbors’ views of the river, it would also not fit in with the grand Queen Anne, Italianate and Craftsman style homes that line the historic streets.

And residents didn’t have to look far for an example of their concerns: Just across the river, a huge concrete wall runs along Camp Allen Drive, giving residents there a view not of the river but of a huge concrete wall.

“We just didn’t want that,” said Weybright, vice president of the West Central Neighborhood Association.

City officials heard those concerns.

Now, instead of a large, concrete flood wall like the ones lining the St. Joseph River in the Lakeside neighborhood, officials are considering a low, decorative wall that would line a new section of the Rivergreenway.

During any period when forecasts predict rising river levels, posts can be inserted to hold panels that make a waterproof flood wall able to reach the 500-year flood level.

“We’ve always wanted to do something for the neighborhood,” City Engineer Dave Ross said. “But there was such a variety of ideas, it took longer” to develop a proposal.

Weybright said she loves what she’s seen so far and is “cautiously optimistic.”

“I think it’s the best of both worlds,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of research, and in some places in Europe where it’s used, it’s just beautiful, and you can’t even tell it’s there.”

Ross said the system the city is considering is built by EKO Flood USA (ekofloodusa.com), based in Jackson, Wyo.

While it will be more expensive than a plain concrete wall, Ross said officials do not yet know how much the proposal would cost. He estimated it will cost between $1 million and $2 million, and officials are not yet sure where that money will come from.

But for now, they have an option to study.

“We definitely want to investigate this further,” he said.

In recent floods, the city protected the area by building a temporary clay dike down Thieme. The dikes are faster and more effective than having volunteers throwing sandbags, but they’re an expensive, messy solution that requires expensive, messy cleanup later.

“Every year now it seems we go out there and drop clay,” Ross said.

Weybright said this new option will not spoil the neighborhood as many feared a concrete flood wall would; it may actually enhance it.

The riverbank, which is being stabilized as part of an unrelated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, is mostly scrub growth and looks unappealing, while a trail and decorative wall could be beautiful.

In addition, the plans call for a landscaped traffic island at the end of West Berry Street that would divide Thieme in two, with the north end being a one-way street running north and the south end being one-way running south.

“I like that,” Weybright said. “You’ll no longer be able to race through” between Main Street and Washington Boulevard.

And she understands why some people would scratch their head at the neighborhood’s reaction to the city’s first proposal of a flood wall.

“It probably seems contradictory” that residents would be sandbagging one year and rejecting flood protection the next, Weybright said. “It’s not that we didn’t want something done. Obviously, I don’t enjoy my front yard being destroyed every flood, with all the sandbags and the worrying. … It’s nerve-wracking, let me tell you.”

But now, residents are actually excited about the proposal.

“I’m cautious, but very optimistic,” Weybright said. “If the city sticks with that plan, I think it will be a very beautiful drive.”

dstockman@jg.net