City Hall puts off demolition of Czech Village homes

The demolition of homes next to the Czech Village commercial district isn't going to start Monday as planned.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, said Friday that demolitions of flood-damaged homes between the A and C streets SW have been put on hold to give the City Council a chance on Tuesday to discuss the future of the some 100 homes there, all of which sit in the 100-year flood plain.

District 3 council member Pat Shey, who represents the Czech Village area, said Friday he convinced three of the eight other council members to put the matter on the council agenda for discussion.

“It just seemed to be steamrollering out of control (toward demolitions),” Shey said.

Last week, Shey said he thought there was merit in a proposal by a young Iowa City developer, Charles Jones, and Cedar Rapids planning consultant Richard Luther to slow the demolition process down and see if the residential neighborhood next to the Czech Village commercial district might obtain historic standing and so qualify for historic preservation tax credits to help pay for renovations.

On Friday, Luther called the delay in demolitions “great news for those interested in saving this historic immigrant neighborhood.”

“The City Council has overcome other challenges related to flood-recovery regulations, and this will be another case where strong community action will make the difference,” Luther said.

Only recently, state and federal officials have signed off on a second consultant's historic-preservation study, which concluded that the Czech Village residential area does not qualify as a historic residential district.

Jones and Luther are advocating the use of volunteers to strip off siding and to remove porches and additions to homes that have become part of them over time so that the homes then might qualify for historic standing.

Some on the City Council said last week that such an exercise didn't make sense.

On Friday, Shey said he wanted the council to discuss the ramifications of losing homes next to the Czech Village commercial strips before demolition moves ahead.

“I'm concerned about the character of that neighborhood, and I know the business owners are very nervous about being an island without kind of a residential area on their flank,” Shey said.

He noted that the city's Historic Preservation Commission and the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street Board also have expressed concern.

Rehabilitating the flood-damaged homes in a way that uses historic preservation tax credits, he said, might make more sense than tearing down most of the homes and waiting to see if someone wants to build new ones in place above the flood plain.

The city had been waiting for the state and federal ruling on the historic character of the residential neighborhood, and when that determination came in, the city moved ahead with plans for demolition.

At the same time, in the 28 months since the 2008 flood, the City Council has not wanted to spend public dollars to rehabilitate homes in the 100-year flood plain. It currently has a home giveaway program in place, but the program requires developers and builders to move homes out of the 100-year flood plain.

Sixty-one of the about 100 homes next to Czech Village have been labeled “imminent threats” to health and safety, a definition that allows the city to use Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to pay for demolitions. That funding has been slated to run out Nov. 27.

The city's Eyerly, who has been focused on the Nov. 27 deadline, said the city does not have to demolish “imminent-threat” homes, and he said the city can use federal Community Development Block Grant funds or even city dollars to demolish homes later.

Council member Kris Gulick, who joined Shey in getting the Czech Villlage home demolitions on the Tuesday council agenda, said it made sense to hear about options even if, in the end, most of the homes are demolished. Holding matters up for a few days won't hurt anything, Shey added.

“I want the council to weigh in on this as a group,” he said. “I'm not going to die on this hill. If that is the council's will that we need to move forward (with demolitions), then I understand that.”