Historic considerations could permit Czech Village homes to be renovated

A next Sinclair smokestack-like historical discussion may be ahead at City Hall as a developer looks to try to “rescue” some flood-damaged homes next to the Czech Village commercial strip.

It seems, though, that Charles Jones, president of Green Development LLC of Iowa City, has no easy hurdle to jump.

For now, Cedar Rapids city officials say that any renovation of the homes immediately next to Czech Village between A and C streets SW - some of which are in the construction area for a new flood-protection system and the 100-year flood plain and some of which are outside the construction area but in the 100-year flood plain - cannot occur once the homes are bought out with public dollars unless the houses are first moved outside the construction zone and/or the 100-year flood plain.

Sushil Nepal, a long-term planning coordinator for the city of Cedar Rapids, says using federal dollars for buyouts generally requires that properties be moved out of the 100-year flood plain before renovation.

Jones and two people working alongside him, Richard Luther and Rod Scott, are working to make the case to city officials and to the City Council that federal law allows a couple of exceptions.

In one instance, they point to something called a special “8-step process” set out in federal rules. The process, they say, allows a city to make a case to the federal and state government to permit renovation in the 100-year flood plain even if federal money was used to buy out homes.

Sushil Nepal, a long-range planning coordinator in the city's Community Development Department, says the city has talked at length about the 8-step process and has concluded that the city would fail in trying to make a case using the process.

“The city has not undertaken the full 8-step process because it is unlikely that the city could ever certify to (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) there is ‘no practicable alternative' to redevelopment of housing in the 100-year flood plain,” Sushil states. He says there are several alternatives which the city is engaged in, including the construction of replacement housing, providing assistance for replacement housing and moving homes out of the 100-year flood plain.

Jones and Scott also say there are certain historical considerations in federal law that they argue permit flood-damaged homes bought out with federal dollars to remain and be renovated in the 100-year flood plain. Cities don't have to abide by the considerations, but can, says Scott.

However, there is some question if the homes in the Czech Village area have historic standing. They are not in a National Register historic district, points out Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director.

City Council member Chuck Swore, who is the council liaison to the city's Historic Preservation Commission, says it would be difficult to get behind the use of public money for home renovations in the city's existing construction zone when those homes might need to be moved or demolished to make way for the new flood protection system that the City Council is even now fighting to bring to the city.

Scott, a historic preservationist who also works for a home-moving company and has a side business providing advice on how to apply for historic tax credits, says moving houses he considers historic from the Czech Village area would hurt their historic standing, some of which comes from the place the houses now sit, he says.

Luther is the former development manager for the city of Cedar Rapids who played an important role as a city employee in the creation of the Bohemian Commercial Historic District across the river from Czech Village.

Tim Waddell, division administrator for community development at the Iowa Department of Economic Development, says that the state agency has prohibited any post-disaster development in the 100-year flood plain when public money is involved except when the 8-step process is used. HUD discourages such redevelopment, he says. He adds that homes that survived the 8-step process would need to be flood-protected, which often means elevated, if they stayed in the 100-year flood plain.

Developer Jones' plan is to protect homes he considers historic in the 100-year flood plain from future floods by moving key heating/air conditioning, electrical and mechanical systems up out of harm's way rather than elevating homes.