Central Nova News

Effective October 24, 2023, the City of Alexandria updated the Flood Mitigation Grant Program to open eligibility to all property owners by removing the requirement to show past flooding. The Grant program was also updated to increase the maximum amount of the 50/50 matching funding for eligible flood mitigation measures on association common areas up to $25,000.

Since its inception in August 2021, the Grant program has had more than 250 applications approved and more than $770,000 granted to property owners. However, over the past year, program leaders have noticed a drop in participation. Staff believe this is partly due to the properties with past flooding have likely already applied for and received grant funding. Therefore, the requirement to document past flooding was removed to allow for proactive mitigation measures for properties at risk of flooding and should increase participation.

The maximum matching grant for association common areas has also increased from $5,000 to $25,000. This update came after City staff received direction from the Ad Hoc Advisory Group to explore ways to provide an increased maximum matching amount for flood mitigation efforts installed in association common areas. The Ad Hoc Advisory Group has expressed support for this approach. Additionally, the Virginia General Assembly modified Virginia Code to explicitly state that grant funding can be used by associations for flood mitigation projects, effective July 1, 2023. This increase in matching grant funding for association common areas is reasonable given that the cost of flood mitigation measures is typically much higher for common areas. Individual condominium owners may still apply for up to $5,000 of matching grant funding for their units.

Additional Information:

The City's Legislative Package included updates to the Code of Virginia to explicitly allow municipalities, such as Alexandria, to provide grant funding for flood mitigation efforts. The City's work with State leadership and constituents ushered in this legislative change, effective July 2021, which enabled the City to move forward with developing the Flood Mitigation Pilot Grant Program.

The program offers 50% reimbursement of the completed project costs, up to $5,000, for implementing eligible floodproofing measures on their property following staff review. Floodproofing and mitigation techniques provide a quick, short-term mitigation effort to protect properties while larger capital projects are considered. The grant will be similar to the City’s backflow preventer grant program which offers reimbursement to residents who install backflow preventers.

Original source can be found here.