State of Iowa Buyback Info - CR Gazette

Cedar Rapids leans toward barring rebuilding in floodplain
By Rick Smith
The Gazetterick.smith@gazettecommunications.com

CEDAR RAPIDS - Most members of the City Council seemed to be leaning last night toward prohibiting rebuilding some 1,000 damaged residential properties in the 100-year floodplain but could not decide because the issue was not on the agenda for a vote.The council is facing what council member Brian Fagan called the "significant gap."That gap is the estimated cost of buying out all the residential properties in the 100-year floodplain — which city staff estimated at $86 million — and the amount of federal money available for such buyout programs statewide — which city staff estimated at between $40 million and $50 million.Council member Justin Shields noted that surely Iowa City and Coralville and other flooded Iowa cities will be asking for some of that money. Shields credited Mayor Kay Halloran with pushing federal and state lawmakers to make sure Cedar Rapids is not lost in the mix.What Washington gives the state for property buyouts after a disaster is a percentage of the total claims made by individuals and governments. City Manager Jim Prosser suggested that more money might be coming back to the state after the flood damage is finally tallied.Even so, Prosser said that any federal money passing through the state and coming to Cedar Rapids will require a match in local funds. So some local money must be used, which may help provide some additional money for buyouts.The estimated $86 million cost to buy out 1,072 residential properties in the 100-year floodplain also is apt to be less because some property owners will have received insurance claim settlements.At the same time, the $86 million figure does not address the 1,903 residential properties in the 500-year floodplain beyond the 100-year floodplain, some of which have substantial flood damage. Neither does the $86 million include any of the damaged commercial properties in the 100-year floodplain.The discussion last night focused on residential buyouts.Council member Chuck Wieneke, who represents the flood-damaged Time Check neighborhood on the city's west side, pushed the council to decide it would buy out residential property owners in the 100-year floodplain and refuse to authorize rebuilding. Council member Pat Shey said that flood victims have asked the council most in the last two weeks is for some certainty about their futures. At some point, the decisions about what cannot be rebuilt need a "chain-saw" approach instead of a slow, surgical one, he suggested.In the end, he said, the council was apt to agree that no residential property in the 100-year floodplain with "substantial" damage would be rebuilt.Council member Monica Vernon suggested that would be a good first line to draw. Residential properties in the 100-year floodplain with substantial damage are not all of the residential properties there, but only an estimated $73 million worth of the $86 million in residential property in that area.Most flood victims in the 100-year floodplain who have spoken to the council at its last two meetings have seemed to favor a buyout.Under the federal and state flood mitigation program, all buyouts must be voluntary, Prosser noted.Christine Butterfield, the city's community development director, noted that the city continues to reinspect properties on the west side of the river with the intent on lifting bans on building permits in additional parts of the 500-year floodplain. Those bans are still in place because the moisture content of the properties is too high to allow rebuilding without mold forming.The first 45 minutes of last night's meeting was conducted in a basement hallway in Iowa Hall at Kirkwood Community College because of a tornado warning. It was a time for public comment, with council members sitting on stairs, and most of the residents standing in the hallway beneath them.One resident, Walt Simmons, said some in the crowd hoped a tornado would hit their flood-ravaged homes so maybe insurance would cover them.