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1976 — 9 June 1978
Built first, permitted never: Historic Fort Wayne built the Old Fort replica in 1976 on the banks of the St. Marys River — without the prior approval of the Natural Resources Commission, in the regulatory floodway. The Commission denied the after-the-fact application on 16 November 1977, finding that the fort buildings, pedestrian bridge, visitor's center and fill lay in the floodway, would raise the stage of the regulatory flood, unduly restricted the floodway's capacity, and constituted an unreasonable hazard. The March 1978 flood made the argument physical: water stood about six inches above the fort's first floor.
The order: By decision of 9 June 1978 the administrative law judge denied the application and ordered the petitioner to remove the unauthorized structures from the floodway or, in the alternative, to compensate by excavating material from the west bank. The fort stands on the river today — a fixture of the city's public life — and the case, Historic Fort Wayne v. Department of Natural Resources, remains the sharpest document in the city's long argument about what may be built where the water goes. The course that let the fort remain after the order is not set out in the decision itself; the expand note names it as a gap.
Sources:
- Historic Fort Wayne v. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 1 CADDNAR 1 (1978), Indiana Office of Administrative Law Proceedings — the unpermitted construction, the Commission's findings, the March 1978 flood levels and the removal-or-excavation order.