Program to Buy Flood-Prone Homes in Cranston, Johnston Kicks Off with Public Meetings
January 17, 2025
CRANSTON, R.I. — A series of public meetings held this month started a new phase in a plan to buy up homes along the flood-prone Pocasset River and restore parts of the river’s flood plain.
The Pocasset River Watershed Plan targets specific neighborhoods in Johnston and Cranston where flooding frequently damages property.
The meetings held in both communities offered more information to residents who may be eligible and willing to sell their homes as a part of the federally funded program.
Speaking at a Jan. 15 meeting in Cranston, Gina DeMarco, special projects manager at the Northern Rhode Island Conservation District, explained that the plan is funded by a federal law called the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act.
The overall project is large, and will likely cost about $60 million in total, DeMarco explained. As of now, following an allocation from Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) there’s about $5 million allotted for home purchases in each community.
“We have enough to get started on in the River Drive neighborhood of Johnston and the Riverview neighborhood of the city of Cranston,” DeMarco said.
To prevent damage in the area, the plan involves flood-proofing some properties and purchasing others so that the flood plain can be restored to a more natural and resilient state.
“One thing that I do want to emphasize is that this is a voluntary program,” DeMarco said. “So, if you are not interested in selling your property, there is nobody that’s going to pressure you or force you.”
Shawna Little of Fuss & O’Neill, the engineering firm hired to oversee the project, said homes that are purchased will be torn down, and depending on where and how many homes the program acquires, there will be greenery planted or wetlands restored on the properties to bring the areas back to what they were probably like “pre-development.”
After showing the audience modeling of how flooding impacts the neighborhoods in Cranston that are included in the plan, with about three and four feet of flooding during 100-year rain events in some areas, Little said that flooding will likely intensify and worsen over time.
Mike Viola from the Rhode Island state office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which is a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explained to the crowd that those who are eligible will receive a letter asking whether they would like to participate.
The residents who receive letters will have about 30 days to reply. If they reply with a “yes,” an appraisal process starts to find the fair market value of the home. Viola said NRCS will supply a letter to the appraisers letting them know that they should evaluate the home as if it never floods.
After a resident’s home is appraised (by two different appraisers), that amount will be offered to the resident without negotiation, he said.
Again, residents will have about 30 days to answer the “offer of just compensation,” but Viola noted that even if a homeowner agrees to sell, they have the right to renege on the deal if they can’t find another home or change their mind.
Residents will not all be receiving letters at the same time, Viola said, because the municipalities are still working on which areas will be offered the chance to sell first.
Jan Salva, a Cranston resident interested in selling, said that she’s already had to leave her home for six months in the past while it was being renovated after flooding damaged it.
“If the price is right,” Salva said she’d sell. “That’s the key.”
this is a golden opportunity for those impacted homeowners. they re crazy not to take the money even if they have to make adjustments to secure new homes. their homes are unsaleable knowing that they are subject to recurring flooding and the appraisals are supposed to ignore that fact. take the money and run because i m sure the first thing trump is going to do is kill programs like this as he just replaced jesus christ.