Cedar Rapids trying again to give away flood-damaged homes

City Hall is making a second attempt to give away 476, least-badly flood-damaged homes that the city is buying out and will demolish if no builder or developer expresses an interest in renovating and selling them.

The attempt comes with a short window of opportunity as the city marches ahead in a demolition effort - funded by federal dollars and with a third post-flood winter approaching - that will take down some 1,200 or more flood-damaged homes when all is said and done.

Some 275 of the 476 homes in the city's Residential Property Disposition Program will need to be moved under current city rules because they sit in the 100-year flood plain or in an area designated as a construction zone for a new flood-protection system.

To date, for instance, no qualified bidder has offered to take, move and renovate any of the homes between A Street SW and the river-side of C Street SW next to Czech Village, some of which a young Iowa City developer, Charles Jones, would like to renovate in place.

About 13 of 100 or so homes have been deemed individually eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

A first round in the city's home giveaway program in August saw 18 qualified builders and developers and three qualified non-profit programs express an initial interest in 100 of the 476 homes in the program. The program's premise is that the private and non-profit sectors can best identify which homes in the group are worth renovating and saving and which are not.

Of the 100, only six would need to be moved.

A new round of letters went out Friday to developers, builders and individuals to see if there is additional interest in the program, Jennifer Pratt, a planner in the city's Community Development Department, reports.

Applicants will have seven days to identify least-damaged homes already bought out by the city and awaiting demolition - the city is finishing up demolition on about 700 of the worst-damaged homes deemed an “imminent threat” to health and safety. Applicants also will have 14 days to identify homes not yet bought out and 14 days to apply and become eligible for the program if they have not yet done so.

The city's Pratt says the city, to date, has bought out 13 of the initial 100 homes identified for giveaway. Letters have now gone out to those developers to see if they want to proceed to acquire, renovate and sell those properties, she says.

A few builders and developers in the program have said that the actual number of homes in the program is apt to less than 100 after builders and developers get into them once the city buys them out.