The City of Austin is moving forward on the first phase of a plan to buy out homes in the Onion Creek neighborhood, a process in which the city will purchase homes currently located  in flood-prone areas to relocate families to safer areas, following council approval March 22.

A flood plain, or flat land that is adjacent to a stream or river that often experiences flooding, study by the Austin Watershed Protection Department was initiated in 2014 after the 2013 Halloween flood. The department completed Phase 1 of its Onion Creek Floodplain and Flood Mitigation Study in early 2017, which involved updating the flood plain maps laid out in the 1980s. There are 138 properties that are considered to be in the flood plain.

Phase 2 of the study, led by engineering firm Halff Associates, was completed in October and evaluated various options that would most effectively mitigate flood risk in the Onion Creek area.

“The engineering study looks at different things you can do to reduce risk in the neighborhood such as detention ponds upstream, making the channel bigger or building a floodwall,” said Pam Kearfott, supervising engineer in the watershed engineering division of the city’s watershed protection department. “Even with the biggest structural project you can build, you still can’t reduce the risk to the level where you want to, so that’s why we started looking at nonstructural options as well.”

Exploring the options


Over the course of the three-year study the city evaluated flooding solutions, including channel clearing, building upstream regional detention ponds and a voluntary home buyout program.

Based on the results of the study, Halff Associates recommended voluntary buyouts as the preferred flood-mitigation option over the alternatives.

“Channel clearing is the cheapest option, but we picked the [method] that is the most effective at reducing [flood] risk and has the benefit of being able to be implemented on a much shorter time frame assuming there is funding in place for it,” Kearfott said.

Assuming 100 percent participation from the 138 property owners, the watershed protection department estimated the preliminary cost estimate for buyouts by the city would be approximately $77.5 million.

The city agreed to buy out 50 of the 138 flood-prone homes amounting to $25 million, which includes all costs including the buyout, staffing costs and the demolition of the purchased homes. The remaining 88 homes will be part of a second-phase buyout, which is on hold because funding has not yet been identified.

“We know the need is much bigger than there is funding, so we want to keep this process moving,” Kearfott said. “Risk increases every time it rains, so the faster we can get through it, the safer everybody is.”

Regional solutions


Ken Jacob, Onion Creek HOA Vice President, said most of the neighborhood is in agreement that the first 50 homes in the buyout are necessary. However, what some residents are also hoping for is a combination of flood-mitigation solutions to reduce flood risk in addition to the buyouts that will take place in second phase of the project, he said.

“Our main efforts are toward making sure buyouts take place on the first 50 homes,” Jacob said. “We think it will take longer than what is being said on the first 50 homes and in the meantime, we plan on having further discussions with Halff [Associates] and [AWPD] to determine if it is necessary to do that many more buyouts or are there other measures we can do to reduce flooding and maybe not have to take as many homes out.”

Travis and Hays counties agreed to sign an interlocal agreement in May that looks at structural flood mitigation that both the counties can do in partnership and is a prudent investment, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said.

While the engineering company that both counties hired for the study believes structural mitigation is not the best option, Eckhardt said the counties will continue to explore all mitigation options.

“In some neighborhoods the best bet is flat buyout,” Eckhardt said. “In other neighborhoods elevation improvements may be the best bet. But we are open to the possibility of Hays-Travis counties structural mitigation if it’s a good investment.”

Drainage improvements, or improvements to culverts, low-water crossings and storm drains, are a local remedy both Travis County and the city of Austin are working on. In the county’s recently approved bond package, $93.4 million was allocated toward countywide transportation improvements. Precinct 4, which encompasses Onion Creek, will receive $46 million for roadway safety projects that include overall drainage improvements.

“Drainage improvements are really important because most fatalities in a flood occur to someone who is in their car and getting washed out,” Eckhardt said.

Council member Ann Kitchen, whose district covers Onion Creek, said the proposed $851 million city bond package, a package of citywide improvements that is expected to appear on the November ballot, also includes funding for flood mitigation citywide, per recommendation from the city’s stormwater working group.

The committee recommends $112 million for flood-mitigation options, including drainage improvements, upgrading storm drain infrastructure, low-water crossing improvements and additional buyouts. Citywide buyouts are slated to receive $27 million in funding.

“Flood mitigation as a city—we need to understand how we can focus on solutions that are not simply [buying out homes],” Kitchen said. “Our flood-mitigation task force made a number of recommendations, and as a city I think we need to follow up on those recommendations.”

The current situation


The city’s first priority was to take care of the residents who were most severely impacted in the 2013 and 2015 floods, Kitchen said.

For those homes in the first phase, the city plans to start contacting about 10 property owners a month starting in April, Kearfott said.

She said buyouts often last about 9 months per home but each situation varies depending on the market situation. The project is expected to be completed within two years.

Alex Gale, assistant director for the office of real estate services for the city of Austin, said the city follows a set procedure for the buyout process. The city works with each resident so the process is as smooth as possible.

“The idea of all of it is to get people into situations that are safer than they are now and try to make people feel whole knowing they had to move from the home they’ve been in,” Gale said.

A variety of relocation and re-establishment benefits are available for homeowners, renters and landlords who are bought out. Benefits, which include moving expenses, rental assistance payments and relocation services, are not limited to areas around the city of Austin, Travis County or even the state of Texas.

As the buyouts continue, Kitchen and the watershed protection department said they would continue to keep Onion Creek residents updated and would engage in conversations about other flood-mitigation solutions.

“There is some level of interest once we get past the first 50 homes to consider whether or not there is some kind of combination of buyouts and other flood-mitigation solutions that would be useful,” Kitchen said. “I have committed to continue those conversations.”