A little more than a year after heavy downpours made some Buckhead homes uninhabitable, the city of Atlanta has agreed to take ownership of the structures with plans to demolish them.
The 11 homes, all in a flood plain along Peachtree and Nancy creeks in southern and western Buckhead, were inundated with several feet of water after a September 2009 storm.
The city agreed Monday to use a $5.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program to buy the houses. The federal program is designed to reduce the loss of life and property caused by natural disasters.
"To qualify the homes had to have had significant damage of 50 percent or more of the home's value," said Seham Abdulahad, a project manager in the Watershed Protection Division of the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management. "There was repetitive loss. They needed the maximum on their insurance claims."
The city, after signing paperwork with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which will administer the funds, will began appraisals to determine the worth of the homes, Abdulahad said. The hazard mitigation program pays for 85 percent of the houses' preflood value.
No city funds will be used, said City Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean, in whose district many of the homes are located.
Once the homes are razed, the area will be turned into green space. Under the hazard mitigation program guidelines, the green space cannot be turned into a park or used to house another structure because of the likely potential for flooding.
"We plan on completing the project within a year or sooner," Abdulahad said.
Roxanne Smith, president-elect of the Peachtree Battle Alliance, said she is pleased the process is moving forward. One of the homes is across from Bobby Jones Golf Course and has been vacant for about a decade.
The alliance encouraged the homeowner, who lives out of state, to take advantage of the program in hopes that tearing down the house would enhance the area around the golf course.
"We are very much in favor of the mitigation program," Smith said. "It is going to create a beautiful green space."
Adrean said the mitigation will bring to an end a difficult chapter for residents in the community who wanted to stay where they were but could not because of the flood plain.
"There's no joy in this," she said. "It's devastating to lose your home."
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