Sixteen months after record rains flooded the Parkview Estates subdivision in far west suburban Montgomery, the hardest-hit residents have been offered a relocation deal most say they will refuse.
Unable to come up with the $1.4 million necessary to match a federal grant of more than $4.3 million, the Village Board has approved a voluntary home buyout program. Homeowners who participate will get about 75 percent of the market value of their homes before the flood, which was the third to hit the area in 24 years.
Trustees Peter Heinz and Ora Morrison, who live in Parkview Estates, abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote.
“We were not aware the buyout could take place at 75 percent,” said Beverly Schwartz, a homeowner at Parkview Estates. “Seventy five percent is not an acceptable figure to us.”
“We feel a very small number of people are going to accept it,” she added. “We really can’t afford to move out at a 75 percent level.”
Schwartz noted many families in Parkview and two other subdivisions where homes are eligible for the program took out loans to buy appliances and remodel their homes after record rains in July 1996. Even a 100 percent buyout would not cover the investments in their homes, she said.
Jim Langston, who also lives in Parkview Estates, said he took out a $75,000 second mortgage to repair his home, which he had just paid off after 23 years in the subdivision.
“After all those years, you would leave with nothing,” he said. “We’re basically upset about the financial aspect of the thing.”
Under a contract with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, which is distributing U.S. disaster funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a pool of about $4.3 million will be made available to buy out 48 homes in the Parkview Estates, Marbury Manor and Blackberry Heights subdivisions.
The $4.3 million figure represents 75 percent of the fair market value of the homes. Under the program, non-federal funding sources must provide the additional 25 percent.
But an effort by village officials to get state funding fell flat, and the community couldn’t raise the matching funds. The village did set aside $98,000 for the program, and the county next year may have minimal funding available, said Village President Ellis Van Meter.
Any additional funding will be divided equally among the homeowners who participate, Van Meter said.
Village Administrator John DuRocher said any homes that are bought under the program would be razed and the land underneath would be maintained as open space. No homeowners will be penalized for not participating in the program, he added.
Homeowners have until Jan. 30 to decide if they want to participate.
Forty-eight homes have been given top priority, the vast majority in Parkview Estates. An additional 52 homes in the three subdivisions are classified as Priority 2 and 3; they would be eligible under future grants or under the current grant if not all 48 homes participate.
