City Council to approve first 28 buyouts; 11 could get extra $10,850 to help with more-costly new homes

The City Council on Wednesday evening is slated to approve the city's first 28 buyouts of flood-damaged properties in a process that could result in as many as 1,200 to 1,300 such buyouts before all is said and done.

The 28 are in a first group of 117 high-risk properties, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency is helping to purchase to create a greenway along the river. FEMA will pay 90 percent of the purchase cost and the state of Iowa 10 percent. Ten of the 117, for now, have said they don't want a buyout.

Of the 28 buyout properties, 24 are in the Time Check Neighborhood in northwest Cedar Rapids, two are along Ellis Road NW west of Edgewood Road and two are in the Cedar Valley/Rompot Neighborhood in southeast Cedar Rapids.

Eleven of the 28 owners may be eligible to receive an additional, maximum payment of $10,850 payment if they purchase a home at least that much more expensive (including moving expenses) than the value of the one they lost in the flood.

Rita Rasmussen, the city's senior real estate officer, said the rest of the 28 are not eligible for the additional money because they were not owner-occupants of the property prior to the flood.