Update on Hurricane Harvey Buyouts

Fayette County Commissioners heard an update last Thursday on buyout projects involving homes that flooded in Hurricane Harvey. The County hopes to make purchase offers on the properties by the end of this year.

The County wants to purchase and demolish the flooded homes that lie within the floodplain. After the 2017 flood, the County barred homeowners from repairing their homes as part of a plan to eventually buy those properties and prevent future development. Many of the homes lie along Country Club Drive just outside La Grange.

It has been more than three years since the flood. Broken windows and open doors left the structures open to the elements and wildlife. The owners remain subject to property taxes even though they cannot live in the homes.

Tyler Smith of Grant Works, the company administering the buyout program for the County, said all property owners on Country Club Drive with the exception of one have complete applications to participate in the buyout program.

“Collecting an application from that one remaining person is my personal top priority,” Smith said.

That means that all but one of the property owners are at least interested in taking a buyout from the County.

Smith said the County will make offers on the properties by the end of this year and begin closing on the properties in the first quarter of next year.