Cedar Rapids council accepts petition asking for review of 'preferred' flood-protection plan

Without comment, the City Council on Tuesday accepted a petition with 208 signatures on it, which asks the council to review and revise the city's five-year-old “preferred” flood protection plan.

The sentiment is strongest among about 15 homeowners who renovated their riverfront homes on Ellis Boulevard NW near Ellis Park and feel that the preferred plan leaves their homes in limbo.

Linda Seger, president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, also favors a review because her renovated home at 1629 Eighth St. NW is positioned in what the plan designates as a construction zone for a new levee system.

Council members Don Karr and Ann Poe, who sit on the council's Flood Recovery Committee and have roots in the Ellis Boulevard NW area, are pushing for a review of the plan. Karr is not seeking reelection and Poe was not on the council when the plan was put in place.

City Hall spent consideration time and money in the first months after the June 2008 flood with input from experts, the Army Corps of Engineers, planners, city staff members and the public to come up with the preferred plan.

Mayor Ron Corbett has said the preferred plan is a concept that has been modified, for instance, to account for the city's riverfront amphitheater, the protection of the historic Louis Sullivan-designed bank on First Street SW and the commitment to create a Kingston Village district across the river from downtown.

The city plans to seek state funds to help design west-side protection much as the Army Corps of Engineers and the city now are doing for east-side protection.