Balancing risks in Time Check

Gazette Editorial Board

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This city's redevelopment efforts in areas hard hit by the 2008 flood have rightly focused on areas outside the 100-year-flood plain. One major exception is the Paramount Theatre, a downtown historic icon that is being restored.

Soon, a new recreation center may be added to the shortlist. On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved a site at Ellis Boulevard and J Avenue NW for a new facility to replace the heavily damaged Time Check Recreation Center in Time Check Park. Unlike sites in or near Ellis Park that a previous city task force had supported, this one is in the 100-year flood plain.

The decision seems to send a mixed message. How do you justify this exception, especially when no flood-protection plan for the city's near-west side is in sight?

This choice is not a done deal. The Federal Emergency Management Agency must sign off. Nearly $3 million in federal funding is at stake for a project initially estimated to cost $3.5 million. FEMA will have questions and, if it agrees to the site, some requirements. The agency generally frowns on rebuilding in flood-prone areas.

And if FEMA's requirements bump up building and insurance costs higher than the City Council likes, the project could go back to the drawing board, Joe O'Hern, Cedar Rapids' flood recovery and reinvestment coordinator, told us.

O'Hern also expects FEMA will want to know to what extent the project encourages other development in such riskier areas.

Which gets at the heart of the City Council's support for the site.

The new rec center would not be in any new, undeveloped area of the flood plain. Instead, “this is in an existing neighborhood that happens to be in the flood plain and the infrastructure is already there,” O'Hern said.

O'Hern also points out that the project will add water-absorbing green space because the site includes some property the city acquired in the buyout process, adjacent to Time Check Park.

The City Council hopes a new rec center located along Ellis Boulevard, a major artery, will help stabilize the Time Check neighborhood. Already, residential areas around the site, but outside the flood plain, are targeted for a city program to replace damaged homes with new housing.

It's clear the City Council doesn't want to abandon a big section of this core neighborhood and believes a new rec center located in its heart would be a big boost. We appreciate that intent, even though we have reservations about the risks involved.

Now let's hear what FEMA has to say.

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