Friday, July 30, 1999
Land buyout came with limits for township
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WHITEWATER TOWNSHIP — When the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA) offered to help with the acquisition of land in a floodplain along the Whitewater River, township officials bought it.
They thought they could invest the required 25-cents-on-the-dollar, attach a development restriction to the deeds and resell the land to recoup the public investment.
But the local officials were wrong. Federal and state requirements of the floodplain mitigation program say the township can sell the land only to another governmental entity, and then only with EMA approval.
So for approximately $79,000, the township wound up with about 3 acres in a floodplain.
“It's not very useful,” said Hubert Brown, president of the township trustees, who blames EMA for the miscommunication. “If we had understood this, we probably would not have gotten involved in the project.”
The opportunity arose after spring 1998 floods, when the Ohio EMA launched the biggest property buyout in its history. About $26 million in local, state and federal dollars were com bined to buy developed land in floodplains that have been repeatedly overcome by rivers, lakes and streams.
The program requires that all structures be demolished so that future floods will not lead to any more claims for private insurance or state relief payouts.
“It's pretty restricted as to what the land use can be,” said Pat Beck, state hazard mitigation officer. “They can either leave it as open space, or they can build recreational areas on it. Or it could be used for a campground as long as people were able to evacuate and adequate warning time could be provided for them to remove their tents.”
About 15 homeowners were eligible for the program in Whitewater Township. Five initially chose to participate; four recently sold their land for developed market value and relinquished their deeds.
The township took ownership of four separated lots on Lawrenceburg Road and a single lot around the corner on Stephens Road.
Although it never intended to spend so much money on acquiring park land — the likely eventual use — the township will be able to offer the first public access to the Whitewater River, Mr. Brown said.
“What's going to happen is we've done some good things: We've moved some people out of the floodplain who needed it. We've helped out some residents. And we've acquired some property for 25-cents-on-the-dollar. ... Really, it's not a bad deal.”
Still, he plans to complain to the governor, Ohio and federal EMA officials. He says the restrictions on selling the land were never made clear. The township would rather have sold the land at cost to adjacent property owners for their own privacy and green space.
“I'll say, "Hey, we're a small township and you're the big government and you can't come in here and do this to us because it hurts us,'” he said. “But it's not going to break us. We'll just find a way to make this useful.”
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