Iowa City Council Votes to Fund Levee Study

The Iowa City Council voted to move forward on a study that will determine if a levee is the right choice to avoid future flooding along the Iowa River near City Park Tuesday.

Despite some objections raised by Taft Speedway residents at the Tuesday night meeting of the proposed 10-foot high levee that would separate their 9 houses from the river, the city council voted 6-1 to use  $84,550 in Community Development Block Grant funds "to study the impacts of and explore and review all alternatives to provide flood protection in the Taft Speedway area."

Councilor Connie Champion was the lone dissenter.

"I'm not going to sacrifice one group of people over the safety of others," she said, referring to the residents of Idyllwild, a 92-unit condominium association north of Taft Speedway that the proposed levee would hypothetically protect from flooding.

Sally Cline, who represented Idyllwild residents, said they were in favor of the study at the meeting.

"We really are encouraging the council to take the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money and do the study and expand the study for the betterment of all involved," she said.

Cathy Wilcox, who lives on Taft Speedway, said she believes the city is also trying to fill in a secondary road access problem with the levee.

"It is not right to protect one neighborhood at the expense of another," she said. "The cost is too prohibitive and to use flood protection to solve a secondary road access problem is not right. The residents of Idyllwild have taken action to by securing flood insurance, just as Taft Speedway residents have been doing for years."

Wilcox added that a FEMA agent told her after the 2008 flood in Iowa City destroyed her home that flood insurance is the only way you can protect yourselves against future flooding.

"The Taft Speedway levee with a road on top should not be built," she added.

But during discussion, Councilor Terry Dickens made a point to clarify that by accepting the funds and moving forward with the study, the council wasn't tied to constructing the levee.

"Right now it's on the table," said Jeff Davidson, the director Iowa City's Planning and Development Department. "It's a levee the study will investigate. It could end up being a temporary flood wall that's put in and out during each flood event. Regardless the study has to be completed if you wish to take any type of flood mitigation strategy along Taft Speedway into consideration using federal funds."

Council Member Regenia Bailey, who was mayor during the flood, said the study will "give us the opportunity to explore some things that perhaps we haven't considered."

"In 2008, everybody in the community bore the expense of flood response and flood recovery - that's what it means to be in a community," she said.

The resolution authorizes the Mayor to accept the federal funds as well as sign the grant agreements for the project. The study also includes the review of impacts on residents and infrastructure in the Park View Terrace area.

A separate resolution, also passed 6-1 with Chamption dissenting, authorized HDR Engineering, Inc. to provide engineering services for the Taft Speedway Flood Mitigation study.

"This study will address public concerns through a number of public meetings as well as provide a recommended flood mitigation alternative based on flood modeling data, cost-benefit analysis and impacts to all affected citizens," acording to the resolution.

Any additional costs above $84,550 will be covered with Iowa City funds.