City Council to weigh grant that would remove 13 flood-prone properties in south Lawton

City of Lawton officials want to use a federal grant to mitigate the effects of flooding in south Lawton.

Members of the City Council will consider a city staff recommendation today to use a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to buy and demolish 13 flood-prone properties along and near Numu Creek, in the vicinity of Lincoln, Union and Mattie Beal parks. Most of the properties are located along Southwest I Avenue, between Southwest 2nd and Southwest 6th streets, although others are located nearby on Southwest 3rd, Southwest 6th and Southwest 9th streets.

City officials identified a $622,199.55 project when they applied for funding from FEMA, using a grant program that requires a 10 percent local match. The proposal would mean Lawton would supply $59,257.10, to match the $562,942.25 that is being provided by FEMA, to tackle a project that fits into what the city already has been doing, in terms of lessening the effects of flooding through various measures.

FEMA’s program is specifically aimed at removing individuals who are within the floodway or flood fringe, sites more prone to flooding during rains. The goal is to acquire the property from owners, paying those owners (who volunteer to participate in the program) fair market value. Grant funds are awarded to governmental entities to implement what FEMA defines as long-term hazard mitigation measures. In this program, properties with structures are removed from high risk flood areas and once the tracts are cleared, the land’s use is restricted to open space, recreation or wetlands.

Lawton intends to return the property to open space, city officials said.

The structures included in this program were all built between 1921 and 1954, and all have been designated as being adjacent to wetland, according to the city’s analysis. Evaluation shows no historical properties would be affected, city officials said.

It’s not the first time the City of Lawton has purchased flood-prone properties to remove them.

In the late 1990s, the City of Lawton purchased and demolished eight houses in the Meadowbrook/Heinz additions in northwest Lawton as part of a program to improve flooding problems along the middle branch of Wolf Creek between Cache Road and Meadowbrook. After those flood-prone houses were removed, the city created a channel between Cache Road and Liberty to hold water, action that helped lessen flooding problems that have plagued the western end of Meadowbrook, near Northwest 50th Street, for decades.

The properties to be purchased under the new FEMA program are 209 SW I, 211 SW I, 213 SW I, 306 SW I, 407 SW I, 408 SW I, 410 SW I, 615 SW I, 808 SW 3rd, 810 SW 3rd, 812 SW 3rd, 808 SW 9th and 809 SW 6th.

In other business, the council will consider a recommendation to annex 160 acres near the city landfill on South 11th Street into the city limits.

The tract, already owned by the City of Lawton, is located at Tinney Road and South Railroad Street, on the northeastern edge of the city landfill and stretching between the landfill’s eastern edge and Railroad Street. The annexation process also would assign temporary I-4 Heavy Industrial District zoning to the tract, effective immediately if the council approves the annexation today (council members directed city staff to set the annexation process earlier this year).

The property is to be used for a landfill gas firing project the city is planning.