Home demolition aimed at keeping neighborhood dry

City Hall hopes tearing down a group of flood-prone homes in central Sioux Falls will help other houses in the neighborhood stay dry the next time the city gets dumped on with torrential rains.

It’s not uncommon for homes in the area around Augustana University to have their basements flooded when Sioux Falls gets rain events. That’s despite thousands being spent in recent years to divert the run off into newly constructed holding ponds and other infrastructure upgrades.

So about five years ago, Sioux Falls Public Works set its sights on creating more green space along Covell Avenue between 28th and 33rd Streets. But that meant existing homes would need to come out.

“Based on how steep this particular watershed was, there wasn’t an alternative that was a better fit than just to go in and start asking for voluntary buy outs. … But they just weren’t ready.” said Mark Cotter, director of Public Works.

But after last August’s torrential rains, the phone started ringing and Public Works has since acquired nine properties along Covell Avenue, which were demolished last week.

Cotter said once razed, the foundations will be filled in with sand to allow for a more permeable and absorbent surface.

“Over time as we capture more homes that are willing to sell voluntarily, if it makes sense we’ll develop a detention pond so we can hold and slowly release (the storm drainage).”

Only time will tell if the program will be enough to dry up the neighborhood. Cotter said engineers will continue to buy more homes if necessary. For now, about 14 other homes on the west side of Covell Avenue have been targeted, with 10 homeowners entertaining the idea of selling.

They can’t all be bought at once, though, due to budgetary restriction. Andy Berg, storm water manager in Public Work’s environmental division, said about $1.2 million has been spent so far acquiring the nine homes that were demolished last week.

Because Public Works doesn’t specifically budget for the project – it’s difficult to know how many homeowners will be willing to sell in the following year when the City Council passes its budget – Berg couldn’t say how many more homes will come out next year. Instead, Public Works diverts savings from other expenses that come in under expected costs toward the program.

“We’ve identified three that we’re going to have the appraisal process done on. So if we have the dollars … we can do a closing on those.”