Haha, I will try and post something alittle better when I'm sitting at a computer and not on my phone, but I'll give this for now. I've read through it a few times, and while this is part of a much larger report that I have not read, I feel I can at least give a brief synopsis.
This Appendix is part of the larger Southwest Coastal Louisiana Feasibility Study, which was completed to analyze the coastal flood damages and ecosystem degradation in SWLA. So, naturally, this included economic and ecological aspects. There are 2 major parts to this Appendix E: the National Economic Development (NED) storm damage reduction objective and the National Ecosystem Restoration (NER) components.
The NER portion is basically the Southwest Coast portion of the 2012 Master Plan. CPRA is the non-federal sponsor, so it makes sense that they would just take that portion and apply it here.
The NED portion of this study provides options for protecting residential and nonresidential structures.
For residential structures, there are two programs, Voluntary and Involuntary. There are certain criteria that must be met for the Voluntary Program, and if met, an owner can apply for the program. The program will fund construction for raising the structure above the projected FEMA flood elevation in 2075. Over 4500 structures have been identified for the Voluntary Program.
The Involuntary program identified nearly 400 structures that must either be raised or destroyed as they have been deemed potentially hazardous to the surrounding communities. If the owner does not wish to have the work done, they will have to sell the property. If they do not, eminent domain will he invoked, and the owner will be paid fair market value.
That is the portion most have an issue with, and is also being misconstrued. I've seen people say over 5000 homes could be seized via eminent domain, which is not true.
The Involuntary seems extremely unfair to the people that have lived in these areas all their lives. "Either raise your home, or we are taking it" is the message.
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