ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Federal officials on Monday announced $7 million in grant funding to buy 11 flood-prone properties in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will fund grants to offer to buy properties in University City, Ladue and Webster Groves and turn them into permanent greenspaces as part of an effort to move residents out of areas that have been hit particularly hard by floods in recent years. Property owners have to agree to a buyout offer.
The properties include apartments and single-family homes that were damaged last year when historic rainfall triggered flash flooding along ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area creeks and rivers.
The cities were among local governments in 23 states that won an annual, national competition for grants to fund projects aimed at building resilience to climate change and extreme weather disasters. In all, President Joe Biden’s administration has approved nearly $3 billion in funding for the grants.
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Elsewhere in Missouri, the city of Springfield won about $9.4 million to provide backup natural gas-powered generators to protect the city’s water supply during disasters.
Each project will have to undergo a second review to ensure their acquisition and demolition meet environmental regulations and other program requirements before FEMA can release funding to Missouri, which will then administer the funds to each city.
“We are thrilled that these cities have been selected,†said Andrea Spillars, administrator for the regional FEMA office that oversees Missouri. “The results will improve the communities’ long-term resiliency by moving structures and people out of harm’s way and hardening critical infrastructure that residents rely on for essential needs.â€
The buyouts approved Monday include:
• About $3.2 million to University City to buy out three buildings of the Hafner Court Apartments, which overlook the River Des Peres, near Olive Boulevard and Hafner Place Drive.
• Nearly $3.6 million to Ladue for buyouts of six homes on Foxboro Road, near Deer Creek.
• $578,730 to Webster Groves for buyouts of two homes near Deer Creek, one on North Forest Avenue and another on East Pacific Avenue.
Each of the properties received grants set aside specifically to eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program, a FEMA program that provides flood insurance to properties in federally mapped flood plains.
The grant funding pays up to 90% of the cost to purchase and demolish the properties, several of which remain under local condemnation orders because of severe damages. State and local governments decide how to fund the remaining costs.
Dozens of other ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area properties are still being considered by FEMA for one-time buyout funding after last year’s deluge. Those properties, ranging from Coldwater Creek in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County to Joachim Creek in Jefferson County, and from Deer Creek in Ladue to the River Des Peres in Lemay, could mark one of the largest flood buyouts in the region in three decades.