Council works to iron out details so 1,200 more buyout letters can go out

At a noontime meeting today, the City Council worked to iron out details of an administrative plan that must be put in place before some 1,200 letters can go out to the majority of flood survivors awaiting a property buyout.

A first group of 117 property owners, whose flood-wrecked homes were closest to the Cedar Rapids, are much farther along in the buyout process.

Money to buyout the smaller group is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create a greenway along the river.

Money to buy out the larger group is coming from Community Development Block Grant funds administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The council's three new council members, which include Mayor Ron Corbett, are leading a move to make the city's buyout plan more generous for flood survivors than an earlier plan that was adopted for FEMA funds.

For instance, the new plan will provide funds to allow those seeking buyouts to get a new appraisal of their flood-damaged home, with the city recouping the cost of the appraisal at sale if the appraisal increases the value of the property and with the city recouping half the cost of the appraisal if the value of the property does not increase or falls as a result of the appraisal.

The council also is talking about providing “hardship advances” for those awaiting a buyout who are struggling financially and need buyout money more quickly than it will be coming.

Mayor Corbett also told the City Council that he is continuing to check to see if the federal government will allow the city to alter its buyout plan, which was submitted to state and federal authorities months ago. Corbett would like to try to pay property owners 110 percent of pre-flood value on their properties, though the City Council last year concluded that only 100 percent was justified by the city's pre-flood appraisals.