You've got to like the Rapid City Floodplain Development Policy Committee's sense of timing.

The committee was charged with the task of reviewing and revising the regulations that govern the Rapid Creek floodway. On June 9, after months of work and a dozen meetings, it took public comment on its final draft report and the changes that report recommends to the current floodplain policy.

Yesterday was also the 36th anniversary of the 1972 Rapid City flood that killed 238 people and caused $160 million in property damage.

The memory of that tragedy will always be the basis for Rapid City's floodplain regulations - as well it should be. Former mayor Don Barnett, who was the city's leader on that fateful day in 1972, and Mayor Alan Hanks, its current chief officer, acknowledge as much when they say Rapid City must be adamant about protecting the city's established floodway.

We concur that Rapid City must strive to strengthen, not weaken, its commitment to the greenway that has grown up around Rapid Creek since 1972. Any future development that infringes on the safety of Rapid City property, or might once again lead to loss of life in a flood event, should be avoided.

The new floodplain development policy seeks to do that in several ways, including:

y Use markers and photographs in the greenway to commemorate and educate.

y Create more stringent zoning standards above the Chapel Lane road bridge, where the Rapid Creek canyon narrows.

y Acquire private property in the floodplain where possible.

y Adopt a management plan for Rapid Creek.

y Increase the current building standards for new structures in the 100-year floodplain.

After public comment and full action by the city council, we hope Rapid City will once again have a floodplain development policy that puts safety first.

Given the rain-soaked month that preceded this public input meeting, the fact that it does occasionally rain hard enough and long enough to create flooding dangers on the high plains of western South Dakota was fresh in the minds of Rapid City residents. What the floodplain committee draft report hopes to accomplish is to keep that fact fresh in the collective memory of future generations, too.