Last home on Coralville’s Edgewater Drive to be sold, reluctantly, to city

CORALVILLE – The last man standing on Coralville's Edgewater Drive is stepping down, reluctantly, from his elevated home.

Mark Brown has agreed to sell his home along the Iowa River to the city, but he said he did so only after city officials suggested they could use eminent domain to seize the property if he stayed put.

His home at 723 Edgewater Dr., which he raised 5 feet following the 1993 flood, is the last of 27 properties that had made up a small neighborhood tucked away along the river just south of Interstate 80. The June 2008 flood drove out his neighbors.

“If it wasn't for wanting to expedite this quickly, get into another home, and just have it over with, I would fight forever,” said Brown, age 58, who shares the home with his companion.

Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said the City Council has made clear it does not want to condemn houses using eminent domain, but it's an option he said the council would have had to discuss had Brown not agreed to sell.

The city is turning the road into an earthen berm, and if Brown had stayed the city would have had to maintain access and utilities to the home. The berm will be finished next month.

“So getting that (home) purchased right now was very important,” Hayworth said.

The City Council at its May 24 meeting is expected to vote to buy Brown's property for $200,000.

The city has long desired the Edgewater Drive homes, which were located in the floodway where floodwater is likely to be deepest and fastest. Three lots not owned by the city remain on Edgewater Drive, but there are no structures on them and none can be built because they are mostly in the floodway, according to the city.

Brown had resisted leaving the home he has lived in since 1971, in an area where his family has lived for generations. His elevated home had relatively minimal damage in 2008, and he said he was willing to risk another flood to live so close to nature.

“I mowed the lawn the other day,” he said, and then “sat on the little chair in the backyard. The dog hops up on the bench with me looking over everything I'd done the last few years, the beautiful view I have.”

(Click here to read a 2009 story on Brown's desire to stay in his home.)

Brown's lush green grass in the front yard stands in contrast to the mud and clay of the berm. Up and down Edgewater Drive, weeds and grass grow where homes used to stand.

The berm will be a foot taller than the 2008 flood level and will have a trail on top, Hayworth said. Options are still being considered for what to do with the rest of the area.

Edgewater Drive is near the city's Iowa River Landing district, which is being redeveloped to include a medical facility, upscale shopping, entertainment venues, restaurants and commercial space.

Access to Brown's home has been kept by going through the Coralville Marriott Hotel & Conference Center parking lot.

But Brown and his companion, Rea Bayyat, still have to cross the berm, which they said turns into several inches of mud when it rains. Bayyat said she's had to wait up to 15 minutes for a construction crew to level the section outside their home so she can get out in her car, a Corolla.

“I feel like they're kind of pushing us out, wanting us out,” she said.

Hayworth disagreed that the city had intentionally made things uncomfortable for the couple.

“He's right in the middle of a huge construction zone. That's the simple part of it,” he said. “And he was on the wrong side of the berm.”

Hayworth acknowledged access to Brown's home has been difficult and said Brown has been “very good to work with” the past couple of years.

The city's $200,000 offer is more than double the property's $83,650 assessed value before the flood and its current value of $97,060. The city's policy on buyouts has been to pay 110 percent of a property's pre-flood assessed value.

Brown is getting more to reimburse him for relocation expenses because he's still living in the home, Hayworth said. The city is using its money, not federal and state funds, in case it wants to build something like a shelter, Hayworth said. Land purchased through the federal buyout program must remain green space.

Brown said he and Bayyat will stay in Coralville. He plans to watch the home on Edgewater Drive be demolished, and he hopes it's a difficult job. The home's concrete is full of large rebar, there are three driveways stacked on top of one another, two garage floors and a large space filled in with concrete from when the home was elevated, he said.

“I guess I want to stand back and giggle and laugh as they try to tear it out,” he said.