County seeks FEMA grant to purchase home

SANDPOINT — Bonner County is again seeking federal funding to purchase a home that was built in the floodway of two migrating rivers.

The county is applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding through the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security to purchase the property at the confluence of the Pack River and Grouse Creek.

If the funding is approved, a home and outbuilding would be demolished, and the property would be restored to a natural state. The home’s location is deemed an extreme threat to safety in the event of a flood.

Planning Director Clare Marley said the county is seeking up to $650,000 to purchase the property and raze the structures.

The now-defunct county building department approved construction of the 3,700-square-foot home in 1994, but FEMA later determined that there was no required analysis of the home’s impact on the base flood elevation.

James and Marlene Stobie purchased the property in 2008.

The county moved in May to cloud the property’s title, which hinders its marketability and lessens its value. It also called for FEMA to declare the property ineligible for the National Flood Insurance Program, although FEMA said it could not do that because the home had an approved building permit.

Earlier this year, the county inquired about the use of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance to purchase the property, but officials were told such funding was not available in instances involving negligence or code violation resolution.

However, the county has since been told that hazard assistance funding is indeed an option.

“I have been advised that since the current property owner was not responsible for any of the development that is at issue in this case the prohibition cited above does not apply,” Mark Riebau, a FEMA floodplain chief in Seattle, said in an email to the Planning Department.

Bob Howard, the county’s director of Emergency Management, said the grant request is in a pre-application phase.