Virginia Beach officials are considering a program that would offer money to residents who want to move out of homes that have flooded or face such a risk. These houses would then be demolished, and the city would restrict future development on the property, earmarking it as a park, land to plant trees or to be used as a flood-control project.
It’s one of several strategies city leaders are weighing to prevent damage in flood-prone areas. This voluntary program was identified in the city’s recent sea level rise study as the most cost-efficient way to limit future expenses from flooding.
“For a city like Virginia Beach to pursue a buyout program, it makes sense. Climate change is increasing the risk of major flooding disasters, especially in coastal areas due to sea level rise,” said Joel Scata, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who has studied these efforts. “Buyout programs are a great tool for helping homeowners that are most at risk for these impacts.”
Flooding in Virginia Beach has been getting worse. Sea level has increased by a foot since the 1960s and former green spaces have been developed, decreasing land for rain to drain. Climate change also causes some storms to be more intense. In the rural part of the city, near North Carolina, sustained southern winds have pushed water into Back Bay, flooding properties.
If the city does not take preventative action, it could see roughly $330 million in annual costs with 3 feet of sea level rise, according to Virginia Beach’s $3.8 million sea level rise study. It’s a problem that could become a reality by 2065, according to the report.
To start a program, Virginia Beach is seeking federal grant money to buy several homes at fair market value in the Windsor Woods area — which was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The city has already sent letters to roughly eight homeowners to gauge interest, serving as a test run to iron out any issues with the strategy. The city has gotten a couple of positive responses, and it’s getting ready to reach out to new people.
And though the pilot program is only in its infancy, some Virginia Beach officials are already eyeing more expansive possibilities in the future, in which local dollars would also pour into the program, speeding up the process and allowing the city to buy larger tracts of land at once.
In Charlotte, N.C., such a program has existed for two decades. Experts now describe it as the gold standard. In conversations dating back more than a year, Virginia Beach leaders have been gleaning insights from flooding experts in the Queen City.
The program began in 1999 after a couple of serious floods in Charlotte led to some “pent-up frustration and demand” from neighborhoods hit especially hard, according to Tim Trautman, Mecklenburg County’s program manager for engineering and flood mitigation activities. Officials decided they had to manage some part of the floodplain differently, which meant getting people out of harm’s way.
The key to a successful program, he explained, is to invest local money, which will provide not only more consistency in year-to-year buyouts but also additional flexibility for the property afterward. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s buyout program can take years, leaving homeowners in a lurch as a house sits flooded, Scata said. Some quit before the process wraps up.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t leveraged (local money),” Trautman said.
But if federal dollars are used to buy property, it can’t be developed after a home is razed. That’s because a structure could create problems in an area where a flood-control project could be beneficial, said Kimberly Tempesco, senior emergency planner for Virginia Beach.
“We have to be very careful. If (public works) might potentially ever want to put a pump station there, we would not want to purchase it with federal dollars,” said Tempesco, who is working on the city’s buyout program. “That deed restriction is forever.”
Each year, Trautman’s office budgets about $3.8 million of these voluntary acquisitions in Charlotte — one of its biggest investments every year. That money comes from stormwater fees. About half of the total funds for the program have come from federal sources, he said.
Based on their engineering data and maps, the city assesses which properties are most vulnerable and target those first. It’s not simply based on how frequently a property has flooded. The city also looks at factors like how fast floodwaters rise and move. Trautman said they’ve likely bought out homeowners who haven’t experienced a flood yet, but whose properties could be at risk.
Moving forward, experts say it’s best for cities to consider how to proactively avoid future costs instead of repeating past practices, when money has been allocated for rebuilding after disasters. Buying back inundated property permanently removes the risk; once a house is destroyed, it can’t flood again, and the new green space serves as an important buffer for adjacent properties.
For every dollar spent on such a program, Virginia Beach would get more than $5 in benefits, according to the city’s sea level rise study from Dewberry. Most of the other site-specific strategies — such as elevating homes or demolition and then rebuilding structures — see less than half the monetary benefits.
The engineering consulting firm has already identified roughly 2,500 properties in Virginia Beach that would be beneficial for the city to buy. Most are in the southern part of the city next to Back Bay.
The city has a list of more than 800 homes that repeatedly flood. As it whittles down properties on that list, flood insurance rates for other areas in risk zones would drop.
In prioritizing land, Virginia Beach officials are examining how often a place has flooded while factoring in if they can buy more than one lot in the same space, or if a parcel is next to city-owned land. Either option would give them the chance to make a “pocket park” in a neighborhood.
“The one thing we do not want to do is polka-dot these neighborhoods with empty lots,” said Erin Sutton, the director of Virginia Beach’s emergency management office.
Possibly the biggest knock on such a program is the potential hit on real estate taxes, which could be a challenge for coastal communities where large swaths of land fall in floodplains.
But it’s not all bad, experts said. Scata said cities will be buying out properties in the worst-flooded areas, where the threat of inundation will already be driving down the tax base.
“You can only raise a home so high for so long,” he said.
In Charlotte, one of the most unique aspects of the city’s program is what Trautman called the “rainy day fund,” which allows his office to quickly offer money to homeowners who were recently flooded. The whole process can wrap up in months.
“When homes are flooded, that’s when people want to get out of Dodge the most,” he said.
This, he said, not only saves money from being spent on repairs in the short term, but also costs the city less because it’s buying a house in damaged condition. Flood insurance would ensure the homeowners “are still made whole,” he said.
Since 1999, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County has spent $67 million, a combination of city, state and federal funds, to buy about 450 homes in floodplains.
The results, he said, speak for themselves. After Hurricane Florence battered coastal North Carolina last year, it dumped heavy rain in the southern part of Mecklenburg County, but only five homes were damaged.
Though Virginia Beach is still in the beginning phase, Sutton said leaders have realized this path is smarter than continuing to elevate one home at a time.
Officials are “trying to really model the expanded program to something really similar to what (Charlotte is) doing,” Tempesco said. The City Council would then need to decide how best to allocate the money.
Trautman said Charlotte is about halfway finished buying homes and has identified at least another 500 that would qualify for the program.
Once a development is demolished, the city then has to maintain the property, Trautman said.
In some tracts, the city reforests the property, which is done through a volunteer program where trees are donated. Sometimes, they’ll add wetlands or a stormwater feature to the land.
For properties where land is bought and cleared out, they will often lease the parcel to nearby owners, who will then mow it for free. This cuts down on maintenance costs, while the same development prohibitions apply.
In Charlotte, Trautman said these buyouts have helped spur new development in safer areas, but also boosted property values in the at-risk communities. Homes near ample green space are more appealing, he said.
But each long-term strategy has its challenges. As sea levels continue to rise, and rainfall grows more intense, experts say more people will have to leave communities that flood. The problem can leave man feeling “trapped,” Scata said. The best part of buyout programs is that it in a way, it gives residents back control, he argued.
“No one is telling homeowners they have to move,” he said. “They’re just saying, ‘If you want the option to move — to escape harm’s way — here’s how you can do it.'”
Peter Coutu, 757-222-5124, peter.coutu@pilotonline.com