FAIRFIELD — After dozens of residents packed council chambers Monday, City Council reversed its decision of earlier this month and voted 6-1 to use a state grant to purchase and raze a flood-prone home on Sir Lancelot Lane.

On Sir Lancelot Lane in Fairfield, neighbor Susan McCamey stands in front of a house that has repeatedly been flooded. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        “It is a loser,” Councilman Mark Scharringhausen said of the home. “This is the only home in the city with a recommendation from the city engineer that it should be purchased and demolished. This is a perfect opportunity to remove an issue we can deal with fairly inexpensively.”

        At its April 8 meeting, council had nixed using an approved state grant that would cover most the city's cost to purchase the one-story home at 5577 Sir Lancelot Lane in the Rolling Hills subdivision off Pleasant Avenue.

        Some members didn't want to spend public money bailing out private property owners and feared setting a precedent.

        That changed, however, after several neighbors protested Monday. Mr. Scharringhausen also unveiled a memo from the city engineer that recommended the city buy the home and demolish it because it would be the best and most cost-effective way to solve the problem.

        Council members were further swayed by a four-minute video residents played showing water rushing like a river through their streets and lawns last summer, when floods hit several areas of the Tristate.

        The video also showed water as high as car bumpers in some areas of the neighborhood, and especially high water at the home at 5577 Sir Lancelot Lane.

        “This is a blight on our city,” said Susan McCamey, who lives two doors from the house. “Over the years, that house has had so many problems and it is a hazard.”

        The home, like most in the neighborhood, was built in a low-lying area and has had flood damage from adjacent Pleasant Run Creek. The subdivision emerged in the early 1970s — before flood plain maps were available — so there wasn't a way for the city to stop development in theseareas, City Engineer Jim Turner said.

        In recent years, the city has spent $12 million to build two retention basins to address flooding problems from the creek.

        But because the home was built much lower than it should have been, it continued flooding. Neighbors consider it an eyesore and health hazard because it is full of mold.

        Earlier this year, Shirley Hibbard purchased the home in the name of a Hamilton corporation, BSHFamily LLC, at a sheriff's auction. But after she realized the home had serious problems, she agreed to sell it to the city.

        The hazard mitigation grant, available to Fairfield from a previous disaster declared in 2000, provides 75 percent of the money to buy the house. The city has to come up with the other 25 percent and pay to maintain the property. The city's cost will be about $33,000; the home most likely will be sold to the city for about $92,000.

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