NYC earmarks $15M to buy homes in upstate watershed flood zones

By Jay Braman Jr., news@freemanonline.com

June 11, 2014

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has earmarked $15 million to buy Catskills homes and businesses, in some cases in the middle of hamlets and villages, that fall victim to frequent flooding.

The funding will allow the department to acquire properties from willing sellers whose homes currently are located in dangerous flood zones in the city’s Catskill and Delaware watersheds, a vast territory covering parts of Ulster, Delaware, Greene, Schoharie and Sullivan counties.

The city will offer localities the opportunity to own any of the acquired properties, which then would be used only for green or recreational purposes.

The city program will not compete with Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout programs. Rather, properties that don’t fit into the FEMA program will be eligible under the city’s buyout.

But the buyouts will proceed only with support from the affected localities, and at this time, the level of that support is unclear.

In the Delaware County village of Fleischmanns, a community that was hit hard by flooding during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, Mayor Todd Pascarella sees participation as a matter of last resort.

“We lost so many buildings in the flood and are going to lose at least a couple more off the tax rolls to pending FEMA buyouts,” he said this week. “Hence I am not excited, to say the least, about the prospect of even more properties being bought out and taken off the tax rolls if for nothing other than the strain it is putting on our finances, not to mention the limited room for development we have.”

Pascarella said Fleischmanns needs more information before allowing the city to start buying properties.

“We are right now actively engaged with the Local Flood Analysis process, and my goal is to exhaust every alternative available in terms of making the village more flood-resilient without losing any more properties,” the mayor said. “There is still a lot of low-hanging fruit to pursue, including clearing out the floodplain areas and setting bridge dimensions to pass more flood waters. In the end, if it comes down to the fact that people are proven to still be in harm’s way and nothing else can be done, then I think we would have to have the discussion about whether they could be relocated to a safer place without being eliminated altogether from the community.”

In the village of Margaretville, another Delaware County location that was devastated by Irene, Deputy Mayor Dave Budin said village officials are reviewing the details of the city program and have some “concerns,” but he did not elaborate. Budin added that the village has yet to make a decision on whether to participate.

Margaretville Mayor Diana Cope could not be reached for comment.

The identification and selection of eligible properties will be undertaken jointly by affected communities and New York City, while direct solicitation of landowners will be spearheaded by the local communities.

Eric Goldstein, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that helped prepare the program, said he was pleased to see it finalized and active.

“We know that properties eligible for this program are currently located in dangerous flood zones that will be subject to repeated flooding in years to come,” he said. “Thus, this program will help save lives, allow property owners to recoup the fair-market value of their homes and move out of harm’s way while reducing risks that sewage and other pollutants will end up in local waterways following the next big storm.”