City OKs Appeals For Buyout Plan - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

City OKs Appeals For Buyout Plan

The volunteer buyout process for future flood control continues to inch forward in the city of Minot.

This afternoon the Minot's City council approved a revision to the voluntary acquisition program for the city.
Finance Director Cindy Hemphill says under the existing program there wasn't a well defined appeals process for the tenant relocation.

(Cindy Hemphill, Minot Finance Director) "We established an appeals process that would be in appendix B.  So that would be the major changes to the acquisition policy.  Otherwise the body of it has pretty much stayed the same.  We wanted to make sure those that are entitled to relocation, uniform relocation act have an appeal process that they can go to if they're not happy with what has been offered to them."

If a homeowner appeals the offer from the city for a voluntary acquisition and is still not satisfied, the person can opt out of the buyout.
The city would then have to go through the eminent domain process to acquire the property for future flood protection.