Paddock Lake is partnering with a federal program to buy and raze flood-prone homes in the village.

In a 3-to-2 vote, the village board Wednesday approved a plan to buy and tear down up to seven homes that habitually flood. The homes identified for the program are scattered along a two-block area in a neighborhood south of Highway K between 239th and 235th avenues.

Federal grants will cover the bulk of the costs, with the village expected to pay 12.5 percent of the purchase and razing costs. Administrator John Burg said the village would likely pay about $80,000 toward the purchase of four homes, with another three homes in line if more federal funds become available.

Costs could be higher depending on purchase negotiations with property owners.

The program is voluntary, with individual homeowners deciding whether or not to take part.

Once the homes are torn down, building would be banned on the properties and the lots would remain open space.

“This is one of the biggest things that has happened to this village in 25 years,” said Trustee Joe Riesselmann, saying the program will allow the community “to get rid of big headache.”

Riesselman, along with trustees Terry Burns and Kathy Christenson, voted in favor of the program.

President Marlene Goodson and Chris Bucko voted against it.

Bucko said she was worried about how the program would affect neighboring homes. She also was unsure whether the flooding issue was a village responsibility. “They bought in low areas, they made the decision to buy these houses,” she said. “Maybe this just opens up a whole can of worms,” she said.

Goodson was concerned about financing the village’s portion of the costs. “Where is the money going to come from,” she asked. “The village at this point really can’t afford it.”

However, Goodson said, she was more concerned with the floodplain designation that goes along with the program. She said that as part of the program areas of the village would receive floodplain designation, which she said would impact property values in those areas.

Homes targeted in the program were identified in a mid-1990s study by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. That study called for the village to pursue a series of projects to alleviate flooding, including building a large retention pond north of Highway K, and razing and flood-proofing a number of homes. The village shied away from those projects at that time due to costs.

Tim Popanda, Paddock Lake’s building inspector, said at least two of the homes identified in the study already have been torn down voluntarily, in one case the property taken over by the village for a park. He said the homes targeted in the purchase program flood nearly every year.

Paddock Lake’s plan will be an extension of an ongoing program along the Fox River. Since 1995, Kenosha County has used federal and state grants to purchase and tear down 84 homes along the Fox in Wheatland, with two more purchases pending. That program, originally targeted about 170 homes in the Fox River floodplain in Wheatland, Salem and Silver Lake, said John Meland of the regional planning commission.