A plan to install concrete floodwalls along the Green River has engineers excited and some homeowners worried.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Gary Horcher talked to one woman who called KIRO 7 because she was concerned the flood wall might force her out of her home.

Her homeowners association sent her a letter asking if she was going to sell her condo and move because of the city of Kent’s plans to build a 6-foot concrete flood wall in front of her building.

The city said the wall is there to protect homeowners, not drive them out.

    When the city told people at the Riverfront Park Condo complex about their plans to build a large, permanent flood wall right through the front of the property, owners like Fran Charbonneau became very worried.

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“That’s when the turmoil began in my brain,” said Charbonneau.


Charbonneau's condo is just feet away from a big bend in the Green River. An earthen levee is there to protect her property and 20,000 people in Kent and Renton from a 100-year flood.

The city has new plans to build a new secondary concrete flood wall that would provide protection in a 500-year flood.

“What frightened me the most was what it was going to do to the property value, because I’ve put so much work into my condo,” said Charbonneau.

To get some answers, Horcher called Tim LaPorte, the chief engineer on the project.

LaPorte said the wall should actually increase property values because it will help the city get FEMA certification that the city is completely protected from a catastrophic flood.

“To get it certified, we have to build a wall,” said LaPorte.


Horcher shared the news with Charbonneau that the wall should protect homeowners from Kent to Renton and it might actually be a selling point.

“That’s thrilling, and the minute you told me that, I knew what my decision was.  I’m going to stay!  I love it here,” said Charbonneau.

 

If  the city gets FEMA certification, parts of Kent will no longer be regarded as being on a flood plain and eventually, people near the wall won't have to buy flood insurance.