At a Glance

FEMA policies after a home is destroyed by flooding require the agency to purchase the land and turn it into open space.A new proposal would allow homeowners to buy back the land after the property has been destroyed.Critics of the proposal say it's going to make those homeowners vulnerable to repeat flood damage, which will be costly.

A longtime FEMA policy to purchase flood-damaged plots of land from homeowners and turn them into open space could be changing soon, according to a new plan proposed by the agency in February.

The new plan would allow the land to be sold back to homeowners to rebuild properties on flood-prone lands where houses , according to documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Theoretically, this would lead to more people living in vulnerable floodplains, and higher damage costs for the federal government when floods occur.

"Why would you want ?" Larry Larson, senior policy adviser for the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "That doesn’t make sense."

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The proposal also says the new construction would have to bebetter protected against storms the second time, but that isn't good enough for critics. Larson said the rule is in place to keep flood victims from facing the same costly situation again.

The Chronicle said the proposed change was reflected in new paperwork, and it wasn't immediately clear if FEMA proposed this change intentionally. Some Houston officials told the Chroniclethey had meetings with FEMA about altering their policies, but they weren't aware that any specific proposals had been decided upon.

"Following Hurricane Harvey, there were discussions regarding direct-to-homeowner acquisitions," FEMA spokeswoman Jenny Burke told Bloombergin an email. "FEMA decided to collect comments and input through the Federal Register notice process. We will review and evaluate all comments received during the comment period and determine the best path forward."