Watershed study recommends FEMA buyouts for repeatedly flooded Fox Hollow; county, city pursue grants

City and county officials told Greenwood City Council that a watershed study supported by the 2016 Capital Project sales tax recommends pursuing property buyouts under a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant for Fox Hollow townhomes after repeated flooding.

Josh Skinner presented the watershed-study update and told council the study — funded at $1,747,000 under the capital-projects sales-tax program — modeled four watersheds and identified 21 problem areas, split into tiered priorities. The consultant (Wolpert Engineering) took a deeper look at seven sites, including the Fox Hollow/Halterwanger area, and recommended buyouts for the Fox Hollow townhome units as the preferred long-term solution.

"They found that the best solution for that area was to buy out the properties using a program through FEMA, where you can get grant money to buy out homeowners that are in the flood plain or in the floodways, provided that once you buy them, you demolish them and remove them forever," Skinner said.

Skinner and staff said the county submitted a mitigation application that requests approximately $3,200,000 to cover…