Las Cruces, NM

Located in southern New Mexico, the City of Las Cruces faces a distinct set of floodplain challenges. While the Rio Grande runs through the community, it rarely flows year-round; therefore, unlike many riverfront cities, Las Cruces does not experience frequent riverine flooding. Instead, its greatest threats come from urban and flash flooding. These flash events can cause significant property damage in a short amount of time, underscoring the city’s need for resilient infrastructure and proactive flood management.

Over time, these environmental dynamics have shaped Las Cruces’ emphasis on resilient building practices, public awareness, and comprehensive floodplain management. The city’s Planning and Zoning Department has worked to ensure that residents understand their flood risk, know how to protect their properties, and can access reliable data when making decisions about development. This approach has positioned Las Cruces as a statewide leader in flood resilience, earning a Class 7 rating in the Community Rating System (CRS) — the highest CRS classification achieved in New Mexico.

Modernizing Systems for Efficiency and Transparency

Before adopting Forerunner, the city’s floodplain management operations were heavily dependent on manual, fragmented systems. Flood data was stored in a patchwork of Excel spreadsheets located on shared network drives, often maintained by different departments. This decentralized approach made it difficult to ensure consistency across datasets and created confusion when staff tried to locate the most recent version of important records.

Compounding these challenges, Las Cruces faced limited IT resources, which made it difficult to regularly update the city’s website or provide residents with accurate flood information. At times, the city also relied on FEMA’s online mapping services — which, when offline or slow, interrupted public access to critical data. These inefficiencies collectively slowed response times, complicated CRS documentation, and made it harder to communicate effectively with residents.

Recognizing that modernization was key to improving both transparency and efficiency, Las Cruces turned to Forerunner — and it has delivered measurable results, saving the city 40% of staff time across core floodplain management workflows while improving accuracy, consistency, and public transparency.

Centralizing Flood Data and Streamlining Workflows

One of the city’s earliest priorities was to consolidate its floodplain data into a single, secure platform. Using Forerunner’s file management tools, the city digitized and organized all EC records, eliminating the confusion of managing multiple file locations. Forerunner’s EC Error Detection feature also automated much of the review process, flagging potential errors for staff to double-check before final approval — effectively serving as a “second set of eyes,” shares Angela Armijo, CFM, Floodplain Administrator and CRS Coordinator for the City of Las Cruces.

This automation has yielded measurable results. Staff estimate a 40% reduction in time spent on EC review and permit-related workflows, freeing them to focus on more complex regulatory and community engagement efforts. By housing all flood documentation in one centralized location, Forerunner has improved data integrity, ensured version control, and eliminated redundancy. These operational improvements have helped staff respond to resident inquiries faster, maintain compliance with CRS requirements, and deliver services with greater consistency and confidence.

Automating and Standardizing SI/SD Tracking

Las Cruces has also made significant progress in improving its Substantial Improvement (SI) and Substantial Damage (SD) tracking process — a historically complex area of floodplain management. Previously, staff relied on manual spreadsheets and handwritten notes to calculate SI/SD values, which left room for inconsistencies and made it difficult to verify results or share findings across departments.

With Forerunner, SI/SD determinations are now automated, standardized, and fully traceable. The platform allows staff to input property data and quickly view, validate, and store results in a structured format. This digital workflow ensures that calculations are applied consistently citywide and that all documentation is easily retrievable during CRS audits or FEMA reviews. It has also simplified communication with property owners and contractors, who now receive clear, data-backed information about their properties and potential compliance requirements.

This process improvement has strengthened the city’s overall regulatory transparency, reduced error, and enhanced Las Cruces’ ability to demonstrate accuracy and accountability in its floodplain management program.

Strengthening Communication with Letter Generation

Effective communication with residents is essential to Las Cruces’ floodplain management success. Historically, responding to resident inquiries — especially flood zone determination requests — required multiple steps and manual documentation. Determination letters and SI/SD determinations were used for virtually every public request and incoming permit; therefore, the volume of work was substantial. With Forerunner’s automated letter generation feature, the city has streamlined this process dramatically, reducing processing time across 100% of all resident and permit requests.

Staff can now generate and send customized flood zone determination letters directly from the Forerunner platform using pre-approved templates that maintain a consistent tone, language, and visual standard. Each letter is automatically logged, creating a digital record of correspondence that simplifies CRS documentation and ensures accountability.

These improvements have significantly accelerated response times and enhanced the cadence of city communications. More importantly, they have helped build resident trust by ensuring that every outreach, whether a simple inquiry or a detailed determination, is backed by accurate and consistent data -  all while reducing the administrative burden that previously accompanied these requests.

Empowering Residents Through Access and Education

While internal modernization was a major goal, Las Cruces has also prioritized public education and accessibility as key pillars of its flood resilience strategy. To support this mission, the city launched a custom knowledge base that walks residents through how to use the Forerunner public website, interpret flood maps, and access flood-related services.

The Forerunner site also houses local ordinances, floodplain regulations, and permitting requirements, allowing residents to quickly find authoritative information without needing to contact staff directly. This transparency helps property owners understand their responsibilities, make informed decisions about mitigation measures, and take proactive steps toward compliance.

By reducing barriers to information, the city has empowered residents to play an active role in managing their flood risk. Over time, this emphasis on education has not only improved community preparedness but also strengthened Las Cruces’ reputation as a city that values both innovation and accessibility.

Collaboration, Data Integrity, and the Future of Flood Resilience

Forerunner now functions as a central digital hub for the City of Las Cruces’ floodplain management program, uniting previously siloed teams across permitting, planning, and environmental services. By working from shared datasets, staff can collaborate seamlessly on projects, verify property information more efficiently, and maintain a clear record of all flood-related actions.

Forerunner has also improved data integrity in Las Cruces, helping staff identify and correct discrepancies between property and assessor records. Additionally, Forerunner’s user-friendly interface and automated workflows have reduced the city’s dependence on IT support, improving long-term program continuity and reliability.

Looking ahead, Las Cruces plans to expand its Forerunner data layers to include Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs), Letters of Map Amendment (LOMAs), and flood study documents. This enhancement will provide a more comprehensive view of flood risk and regulatory changes for municipal officials and residents.

Through these ongoing initiatives, Las Cruces continues to redefine what floodplain management looks like in an arid, fast-growing city. By combining technology, education, and cross-departmental collaboration, Las Cruces is building a model of resilience that ensures residents are informed, staff are empowered, and data informs each decision.