FINDLAY, Ohio — The city of Findlay is weighing its options for buying three flood-prone properties.
Two homes and a vacant lot on Taylor Street are on the agenda for Tuesday's Findlay City Council meeting. City officials plan to purchase them.
Over the last few years, Hancock County has been busy buying and demolishing flood-prone properties on the north side of the Blanchard River, but haven't continued that process into the adjacent neighborhood.
"As they were looking in that area they identified these properties as beneficial to have but not within the specific scope of the flood project," Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn said. "As the city was talking with them, we felt that there was a benefit to the community as a whole to acquire these properties and be able to clean them up."
The ordinance would allow the city to purchase the three properties for $150,000 and demolish the two homes.
Muryn said even though this is the exact area where the second phase of riverbank benching will take place, she said at the moment, there are no specific plans for the property.
"We may need to have some additional green space, we may need to have parking within the area," she said. "So, we really don't know what it may be, and really it's limitless on what it could be in the future. But right now we felt that having control of those properties was a benefit to the community as a whole."
Blanchard River flooding has long been an issue in Findlay. Several damaging floods in recent years -- particularly a 2007 flood that caused millions in damage -- prompted local, state and federal officials to develop long-term flood-mitigation strategies for Findlay and the surrounding area.
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