Still thinking about buying land for a retreat area, perhaps you may want to think twice and get all the necessary information on that property. It seems that FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance Program is throwing up roadblocks to local officials in the State of Texas and severely limiting the property rights of land owners in the state.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the story in the Wilson County News:
“FEMA spokesman Earl Armstrong said his agency requires the property to remain as “open space”. [Properties] can be used for public parks or wildlife refuges, but they can’t be developed,” he said.”
Wilson County Judge Marvin Quinney said “Many of the properties, however, sit in the middle of otherwise usable property and are noncontiguous.”
You can read the full story here:
http://www.wilsoncountynews.com/article.php?id=20097&n=top-stories-officials-want-to-sell-flooded-properties
Better make sure you can actually use the property before you make a purchase.
Be aware. Be informed. Be prepared.
Riverwalker
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5 comments:
great post. I think we can expect to see more and more of this....
Ahh yes. Big Brother strikes again. And is it just me, or is FEMA gettin' AWEFUL big fer their britches?
So paying people to move out of the S Texas flood plains is an evil big brother thing? If yall think that is evil I guess they could have just seized the property under Imminent Domain and compensated the displaced owners with some land in west Texas or the panhandle.
The buyout sounds like a good deal to me. The owners get paid for the house, and still get to keep the land. Land that they can place a non permanent structures on. A RV is a non permanent structure. The owners can still farm and ranch the land, and they are still free to sell the land for even more money. The smarter owners can even lease the land for said agriculture or even recreational purposes like hunting.
Does that really sound like big brother?
Yes, it sounds like Big Brother. They are tellin' folks what they can and can't do with their own land that they bought and paid for. Property rights are being trampled on left and right nowadays, and that needs to stop.
I guess my problem is I use a stricter definition of big brother.
Public safety has always had priority over private property. If not imagine the havoc that would be caused by people living in flood plains and spillways of rivers and lakes.
If I remember correctly it costs over $2,000 local tax dollars for every fast water rescue without the use of a helicopter. would you want your local tax dollars spent on saving morons in the flood or local infrastructure improvements and civil services
Then there is the insurance factor. When it floods, there is going to be more claims. These claims real or not cause the insurance rates to go up. which then affects the region and depending on the insurance carrier the minimum rate the charge for the state. Then when the carriers do their yearly rate formulas and compare them to the competition its likely that the other carriers will raise their rates. In sum you start paying more money for insurance or the insurance company bails on that service for the state.
examples of living in the way of raising water:
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:9TFG0VcKIjgJ:www.trinityrivercorridor.org/pdf/DallasFloodwayHistoryPaper.pdf+dallas+buys+towns+in+flood+plain&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/tx/towash.html
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