Case Studies
Flood Buyouts, Restoration, and Relocation for Community Resilience in Rural New York State
Because 42% of the Village of Sidney’s population was residing in extreme or high flood risk areas, the village resolved to relocate its flood-prone households.
Communities have multiple options to reduce risk from increasing floods and shoreline erosion. They can install physical protection such as levees and floodgates, incentivize flood insurance for vulnerable homes and properties, and use policy tools such as building codes to encourage flood-resistant design.1 In extreme cases, communities can relocate to areas less prone to flooding.2
Adaptation Strategy
With 42% of its population residing in flood risk areas, the Village of Sidney in Delaware County, New York, decided to relocate its flood-prone households. Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene devastated the community in 2011.3 To adapt, the community set out to create a mixed-use, mixed-income, mixed-age community on a 165-acre property on higher ground and replace the original neighborhood along with river with recreational uses. The village called this concept the GreenPlain.
Even though the Village of Sidney was experienced with buyouts and had completed 67 buyout projects prior to the 2011 floods, it had never embarked on a recovery plan to construct new housing for displaced residents or collectively resettle a community. Due to the village’s aging population and declining tax base, local property tax yields did not meet state and federal requirements for financing the local match portion of hazard mitigation programs. The village needed New York State’s support to meet eligibility requirements. As an interim step, the village developed Sidney Municipal Apartments and Sherwood Landing Apartments, two apartment complexes that offer 62 units of affordable housing and replace nearly half of the 130 households displaced in 2011. The adjacent Circle Drive Neighborhood Development Project will add 10 duplex units for moderate-income families.4
Highlights
- On land with severe and moderate flood or erosion risk, relocating residents and demolishing buildings can be the most effective climate adaptation strategy.
- Federal and state flood buyout programs are structured around property owners’ individual rights and choices, making it difficult to use existing disaster recovery and hazard mitigation funds for collective relocation and resettlement.
- Community relocation requires several phases of recovery and reconstruction, so robust planning is necessary for success.
Converting the old neighborhood to the new GreenPlain recreational use area proved challenging. The banks in possession would not sell properties to the village at market value, and federal and state policies do not allow the village to pay above their appraised value. Additionally, the protracted flood buyout administration process disproportionately burdened low- and moderate-income households by lengthening the process for indebted families, reducing trust, and forcing decisions to stay or relocate before residents could recover economically.5 Supplemental state support proved critical because many low- and moderate-income occupants were not eligible for federal flood buyout programs.
Sidney’s ongoing relocation effort offers lessons for local governments planning for collective relocation projects in managed retreat. This case study shows that incorporating a housing assessment into the hazard mitigation planning process can not only help municipalities reveal which households need to relocate, but also inventory the available housing for displaced families. Community relocation requires several phases of recovery and reconstruction, so robust planning is necessary for success.
References
1. Klein, R. J. T., Nicholls, R. J., Ragoonaden, S., Capobianco, M., Aston, J., & Buckley, E. N. (2001). Technological options for adaptation to climate change in coastal zones. Journal of Coastal Research, 17(3), 531–543. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4300206
2. Dannenberg, A. L., Frumkin, H., Hess, J. J., & Ebi, K. L. (2019). Managed retreat as a strategy for climate change adaptation in small communities: public health implications. Climatic Change, 153(1–2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02382-0
3. State of New York. (n.d.). Resilient homes and communities programs. Homes and Community Renewal. Retrieved January 9, 2024, from https://hcr.ny.gov/resilient-homes-and-communities
4. Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2021). Environmental assessment: Sidney GreenPlain project: Delaware County, New York (FEMA DR-4085 NY). https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_OEHP-DR4085-NY-Sandy-Sidney-GreenPlain-EA_102021.pdf
5. Enriquez, J. (2021). Returning to nature: Flood buyouts and managed retreat in New York State [Cornell University]. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/110540