Flood buyout homes in Calgary to be demolished next year

The city says 17 properties along the Elbow River that were affected by last years flood will be demolished in 2015.

The homes were bought by the province under a program to help avoid damage from future flooding.

• Flood buyouts for 11 Calgary homes cost province $33M, documents show
• Exshaw flood victim appalled by Calgary home buyouts

Chris Arthurs, the head of the city's flood recovery operations centre, said the houses have been boarded up and are monitored by security.

Arthurs said the future use of the land has yet to be determined.

The province has been quite inclusive in inviting the city to participate in some of that:determining future land use, determining the future uses of those properties, he said. And clearly the city would be very keen to have community engagement in some of that work.

The government spent $46 million in total on flood buyouts in Calgary. Roughly $33 million out of $46 million spent in the city went to 11 homes on two streets adjacent to the Elbow River Roxboro Road andRiverdale Avenue S.W.

Arthurs told a city council committeeTuesday that the estimate of the city's costs for fixing flood damage has been lowered from $445 million to $409 million.

However, he said the infrastructure repairs will take several more years to complete.

• Flood-damaged path repairs could take until 2015
• Fish Creek Provincial Park flood recovery to focus on bridges, pathways

Much of that cost will be covered by insurance and the province's disaster recovery program.