Keep new Cedar Rapids federal courthouse out of floodplain

By Times staff | Thursday, July 24, 2008

Davenport’s floodplain is almost back to normal. LeClaire Park needs new turf and some roads need patching. But streets, businesses and attractions reopened shortly after the river dropped below flood stage.

Not so in Cedar Rapids, where a record-setting flood devastated the city and forced residents to rethink the scope of the Cedar River floodplain. Among the first of many dilemmas facing the town is replacement of the Northern Iowa District Federal Courthouse. It had been scheduled for replacement within the next 10 years. Now Congress is expediting $146 million in funding to more quickly replace the riverfront courthouse badly damaged by flooding.

The previously approved site is within the same floodplain. The Government Services Administration requires new buildings to be outside the so-called 500-year flood plain. But this year’s Cedar River flood exceeded the 500-year level by four feet, inundating the site of the new courthouse.

It’s a quandary for Cedar Rapids. Clearly, the entire downtown infrastructure of Iowa’s second largest city can’t be abandoned for fear of the next flood. Hotels, banks, restaurants and theaters will be fixed and some remodeled to withstand the type of flooding the city just experienced.

But this major congressional investment in the federal justice system need not be restricted to a floodplain.

The federal courthouse for the northern district serves all of northeast Iowa, including Jackson and Cedar counties. (The federal courthouse in Davenport serves Iowa’s southern federal judicial district.) Its functions require accessibility and security for the entire district. This year’s epic flood suggests the immediate downtown Cedar Rapids area can provide neither.

Congress and the GSA should move Cedar Rapids’ federal courthouse project to the top of the list, but not within the floodplain.