Oct. 21--Residents living along Lisle's St. Joseph Creek, several of whom spent thousands of dollars on their homes after a devastating April 2013 flood, spent the last two years thinking they wouldn't be subject to eminent domain.
But fears the government could seize their property have re-emerged with the release of DuPage County's application for a federal grant intended to revitalize areas struck by natural disasters in recent years.
To qualify for the competitive grant, the county must submit an application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development outlining their unmet flooding needs. The county is requesting between $43 million and $50 million, according to a draft of its grant application.
At a public hearing Tuesday night, county officials emphasized they had no set plans or proposals on how the money would be spent. They were, however, required to include rough "concepts" in the application to qualify for the funding.
What shocked residents was one of the county's outlined "concepts," which according to the application draft, suggested removing about "200 existing structures from the regulatory flood plain, comprised mostly of homes."
"Starting over was hard to do after the flood. And it's hard to have to do it again," said Brian Crow, a resident who has lived in his home for 17 years. "You know what [the county] calls fair market value isn't what the Realtor says. Nobody wants to move."
County officials continued to reassure frustrated residents that buyouts were, at this early stage, one of several possible options. If the federal funding is secured, the county would consider resident input in developing a final proposal, said Tony Charlton, the county's director of stormwater management.
Should buyouts occur, residents' houses would be valued at their pre-flooding fair market value, and the county would send appraisers to assess the values of each individual home, said Carroll Roark, administrator of community development and the liaison between the county and HUD.
But residents say their pre-flood, early 2013 home value is still far lower than what it was before the 2008 recession, when they took out their home loans. Even after they received government compensation for their houses, residents could get stuck with residual mortgage payments they couldn't afford.
"I guess my biggest fear isn't being flooded again, but having the county or village of Lisle determine my fate with eminent domain, and losing my freedom of choice of being removed," resident Colette Jordan said.
Lisle was one of the harder-hit communities during the 2013 storm, which left a trail of evacuated homes, water-logged basements and closed roads and schools in the area. Lisle was forced to declare a state of emergency as the East Branch of the DuPage River rose.
Dozens of towns that suffered a natural disaster between 2011 and 2013 qualified to compete for the federal grant through the National Disaster Resilience Competition. The millions of dollars in federal grants have been carried over from leftover Hurricane Katrina East Coast funding, Roark said.
DuPage and Cook counties, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois all are eligible to compete because of the 2013 floods.
The county lists in its application draft a few potential concepts for flood mitigation should it receive federal funding. The first concept explores maintaining the area's existing 50-year berm, and doing little else to protect the area. Buyouts would in time return the area to primarily open space, which could eventually reduce flooding downstream, the draft said.
Another concept involves replacing the berm with a levee system. The embankment would help lower the overall profile of the river and improve the ecology through the stretch, according to the application draft.
A third concept, marked in the application as the "preferred" option, would opt for a combination of fill and sheet piling to raise the area out of the flood plain, rather than turning to a complete levee system. This approach would require removing a majority of the existing homes, something the draft calls "a difficult task even with the county's existing buyout program."
Removing the houses from the flood plain would open the area back to development and redevelopment, which could raise property values, according to the draft.
These options have residents calling the federal grant money a "Catch 22 situation." While funding for flood mitigation could help protect the area from future storm damage, residents nervous about buyouts and displacement say it's easiest to pray the funding isn't approved.
The county will be notified whether or not they've received the funding next year, officials said. Residents can view the application on the county's website and submit comments electronically through Oct. 24.
meltagouri@tribune.com
