Demolitions of flood-wrecked homes in New Bohemia moved too fast for history

History matters.

The city of Cedar Rapids is being reminded of that and of just how particular the federal government can be about the past.

The reminder came after the city demolished six flood-wrecked properties in what in recent years has come to be known as the New Bohemia area along and near Third Street SE south of downtown.

After last June’s flood, all six properties were among the 71 that the city tagged with a purple placard in the city’s worst-to-best color system that went from purple to red to yellow to green. A purple placard signified that the property was too dangerous to enter, and so needed to be demolished.

Among the first of the purple properties to come down were six in The New Bohemia area, which – with the help of City Hall – gained national historic stature in recent years as the Bohemian Commercial District. This was the spot to first house immigrants from Bohemia in what today is the Czech Republic who had come to Cedar Rapids in the latter 19^th Century to work nearby in what then was the Sinclair meatpacking site.

What the city has come to learn is that it shouldn’t demolish anything in a nationally recognized historic district without first following federal rules related to the historic recognition.

Those rules are part of the National Historic Preservation Act.

In order to comply with the rules of the federal act, the city is among parties that have signed a memorandum of agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, an agreement which requires that information on the historic aspects of the six demolished properties be collected and recorded for future reference.

In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to fund an intensive historic survey of the remaining parts of the Bohemian Commercial District to verify if structures should retain their National Registry eligibility. The FEMA-funded survey also will determine if a National Historic District exists across the Cedar River from the Bohemian Commercial District in Czech Village where the heart of the Czech commercial activity eventually moved.

Vern Zakostelecky, a long-range planning coordinator for the city of Cedar Rapids, said a historic status for Czech Village will give the district access to grants it otherwise would not have access to.

Zakostelecky said the six demolished properties which now will get an historical accounting were at 1308 Second St. SE, 1312 Second St. SE, 1013 Third St. SE, 1019 Third St. SE, 211-213 13^th Ave. SE and 1221 Third St. SE.

City Assessor still working to value flood-damaged property; here’s a window into how it’s done

City Assessor Scott Labus reports that it’s not been easy coming up with assessments for the city’s flood-damaged property.

He hopes to have the job complete in early April.

In his newsletter, which he calls ViewPoint, Labus provides some insight into how he is going about trying to come up with fair numbers for those with flood-damaged properties.

It’s eye-opening for every resident because the value of all the property in the city matters to every single resident. A drop in value once place — and, hence, a drop in the amount of property-tax revenue coming from that place — could increase the burden on property elsewhere in the city.

Labus reports that his office began confronting what the flood would do to the city’s property value even as the flood was hitting last June. At the flood’s crest, Labus arranged to take aerial photographs to identify exactly where the flood reached.

He then used the city’s GIS mapping system to pinpoint which properties were affected by flood water. In total, his office found some 2,700 parcels with actual structural damage, he says.

His office hired two additional appraisers, and in October, his enlarged staff began visiting all the damaged properties to come up with an estimate of valuation loss for each property. To determine the size of each property’s valuation loss, the assessor takes into account the general economic climate in the affected area by looking at sale prices and trends. Now the office is heading back out to revisit each property again before arriving at a final, new valuation.

For homes in which the structure is a complete loss, the valuation of the property will be the value of the land minus the estimated cost to demolish the property, Labus reports.

Flood-damaged homes that have been restored, he adds, won’t necessarily see an increase in valuation from the pre-flood level once the adjustment is made for the overall economic health of the flood-damaged neighborhood.

The downtown is the city’s most concentrated area of valuation, and the basements and first floors of many downtown buildings were flooded. Labus said about 50 percent of the value of a first floor derives from the shell of the building and 50 percent from the interior.

Commercial valuations also are based on the net income a parcel produces. The assumption for now is that rental income for most first floors will be lost for an entire year, Labus says.