Cedar Rapids applies for flood protection money

City Hall has submitted its formal application to the new Iowa Flood Mitigation Board seeking $263.8 million in state revenue over 20 years to help the city build a flood protection system on both sides of the Cedar River.

The state board is allowed to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of a community's flood protection project, and the city of Cedar Rapids is seeking state money for 46.2 percent of its total project cost, which the city is now putting at $570.4 million.

The total project cost includes the estimated $375-million cost of the city's now five-year-old preferred flood protection plan adjusted for inflation plus $117.8 million that the city is counting in its total project cost from federal funds already received or spent for flood mitigation projects, including many of the flood-recovery property buyouts and projects like the replacement of the Morgan Creek lift station and the E Avenue NW storm sewer.

The application anticipates that the city also will receive $78.8 million from Congress to help fund the Army Corps of Engineers' partial protection plan for the east side of the river.

The application states that the city itself will be responsible for $110.1 million of future project costs, which the application says equals $5.5 million on average a year for 20 years.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz and Joe O'Hern, the city's executive administrator for development services, said Friday that the city's share of the project costs will come from a variety of sources and not necessarily by selling bonds and taking on debt.

They said they city likely will have $10 million to $15 million left over for use on flood protection when the current local-option sales tax expires on June 30, 2014.

Pomeranz and O'Hern said the state funding program coupled with expected federal money and federal dollars that already have come to the city and can be used to match state dollars has put the city in a position to cover a substantial portion of the cost of flood protection with non-city funds.

"Now we're in a position to be requesting $264 million in (state) resources that obviously will make a tremendous impact on the community," O'Hern said. "Not only to protect the neighborhoods, but to give people confidence in the investments that they are making in the community that flood protection is going to be realized. ... It's not often we get a chance to leverage local dollars four or five times like this for a project of this size."

The city's application also provides a new look at how City Hall now envisions that flood protection will be built to protect to the level of the city's Flood of 2008 on both sides of the river.

Previously, the expectation has been that the city will obtain funding for the Army Corps of Engineers project on the east side of the river, and that west-side flood protection would come later if money for it could be found.

The city's application to the Iowa Flood Mitigation Board anticipates that state money approved by the board will allow the city to build flood protection on both sides of the river simultaneously, Mayor Ron Corbett said on Friday.

Put simply, "This (the state money) is our best and only chance to achieve west-side flood protection," Corbett said.

The city's application lists nine phases of construction, alternating between east-side work and west-side work.

Dave Elgin, the city's public works director and city engineer, said work likely will take place in different phases at the same time.

For instance, he said the city already has $9 million in federal Community Development Block Grant disaster funds on hand to begin construction in 2014 on flood protection above the Quaker plant on the east side of the river and to heighten the protection at the Quaker plant to the 2008 flood level. Construction is slated for 2015 on the west side of the river at Kingston Village from Interstate 380 to the riverfront amphitheater. At the same time, the city also will begin design work on west-side flood protection north of Interstate 380 to Ellis Park, he said.

As each section is built, it will provide better flood protection for that part of the system even as other phases of the total project are yet to be completed, Elgin said.

Pomeranz said residents shouldn't forget that the city of Cedar Rapids and Mayor Corbett in particular came up with the design of the state funding plan, then pushed it through the Iowa Legislature and secured Gov. Terry Branstad's signature on it.

"It was a very, very deliberate way of the city going after state dollars, by crafting our own piece of legislation, getting the support, getting it passed," Pomeranz said. "And now we've got a board that will be evaluating our application that could be bringing close to $300 million to the city of Cedar Rapids. That is a massive achievement by the city."

The state program allows a community to tap into the increase in state sales tax collected in the community over 20 years for use on flood protection projects.

"If it weren't for Cedar Rapids pushing this from the very beginning, it probably wouldn't have gotten much attention in the Legislature," Corbett said. "But just because we started the process, doesn't mean that we're entitled to any money. We have to have a solid application. And I think we do."

The state board can approve funding to an individual community of up to $15 million a year for 20 years. However, Corbett said the city estimates that it will take six or seven years for the increase in state sales tax in Cedar Rapids to bring in $15 million a year.

The city estimates that the incremental increase in sales tax revenue in Cedar Rapids over 20 years will equal $$263.8 million, which is the amount the city is seeking in its application, O'Hern said.

Any community in the state can seek funding, and six in addition to Cedar Rapids will make a presentation on Thursday in Des Moines to the Flood Mitigation Board. The six are Iowa City, Coralville, Dubuque, Waverly, Storm Lake and Winterset.

Iowa City is asking for $8.5 million to go with $13.6 million in local matching dollars; Coralville is seeking $9.77 million for a $23.5 million of work; and Dubuque is seeking $98.5 million for a $200-million project, officials in those cities said on Friday.