GALVESTON, Texas -- Galveston County commissioners on Wednesday got formal approval for a massive home buyout program that would convert as many as 900 Hurricane Ike-damaged homes into open land.
County Emergency Management Coordinator John Simsen said Phase 1 of the $102.7 million buyout program began Monday when the county contractor, BDR, sent letters to 505 applicants stating their properties were approved for the buyout.
Those properties on the county’s priority buyout list and owners were informed by e-mail on Monday. Most are along the beach front on the Gulf of Mexico side of the Bolivar Peninsula, including properties just east and west of Rollover Pass in Gilchrist.
That number also includes 11 beach-front homes in the village of Jamaica Beach.
After the initial phase is complete, 111 property owners will be considered in a second round of buyouts.
There are an additional 240 properties that are in a holding pattern until county officials determine whether they want to move forward.
Most of those properties are on the Gulf side of the peninsula between a drainage area called the slough and the beach.
Any properties purchased would be owned by the county and would not be available for private development. Under the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, properties purchased become green space.
The land can be used to improve drainage and to create open park space.
County Judge Jim Yarbrough said, given that most of the properties were along the Gulf side of the peninsula, he envisioned a much larger public beach area.
The county also was preparing to send letters to 93 property owners who had applied for — but will not be a part of — the buyout program.
The county had hoped to inform those property owners their properties would not be bought out before the start of the year, but Simsen said Yarbrough and Precinct 1 Commissioner Pat Doyle wanted to see a detailed map of what properties would and would not be bought out before sending the remaining notices.
That map was reviewed Wednesday afternoon.
During the review, Yarbrough expressed support for the county to buy out 15 properties in Freddiesville that were not originally on the list.
Those would be the only properties on the mainland in the county’s buyout program, Yarbrough said.
None of the property owners in San Leon and Bacliff who applied will be part of the buyout, county officials said.
Simsen said while the denied properties technically would be considered alternate buyout properties for the next two years, it was unlikely the county would revisit the plan and purchase those properties. He said he did not know when the denial letters would be sent.
In October, the city of Galveston, which manages its own buyout program, approved buyouts for 62 beach-front properties on the West End.
