FEMA will give city $252,000 for historic properties lost to flood

CEDAR RAPIDS - City officials report that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay the city an estimated $252,000 to take steps to lessen the adverse effect of demolishing certain flood-damaged properties of historic significance.

The payment is part of an agreement among the city, FEMA and the State Historic Preservation Office, an agreement that is the fourth such agreement among the parties. The city also is negotiating an agreement with the Iowa Department of Economic Development related to flood-damaged properties in which non-FEMA federal funds are being used in the demolition, Sushil Nepal, a long-range planning coordinator with the city, told the City Council's Development Committee this week.

In the latest proposed agreement with FEMA and the state historic preservation office, which the committee approved on Monday and the full council is expected to approve on Tuesday evening, the city agrees to undertake eight projects.

Nepal outlined the projects as follows: the development of a comprehensive historic preservation plan for Cedar Rapids; the survey of historic properties in parts of the city previously not surveyed; the creation of a database of historic resources; an intensive historical survey of downtown; a survey of properties in a previously identified Third Avenue SW Historic District while seeking the nomination of the area there between First and Third streets SW for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places; a survey of the city's religious institutions in areas platted before 1965; support for the digitizing of documents at the Carl and Mary Koehler History Center; and support for an architectural salvage operation for a year.

FEMA and the State Historic Preservation Office identified 30 flood-damaged properties slated for the city's buyout program that would have qualified for placement on the National Register of Historic Places and an additional 30 properties that contribute to districts considered historic in the city.