Trotwood makes strides to rebuild tornado impacted areas

Sep. 20--The city of Trotwood has been conditionally approved for nearly $100,000 to demolish eight properties that the Memorial Day tornadoes damaged in 2019.

The city received $993,750 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of Trotwood's emergency protective measures project. Of that money, about $128,000 will be used to raze houses in the Westbrook Village and Shiloh Gardens areas.

To receive the funds, the city had to prove the properties were a safety hazard.

"We made our case that fencing the areas off would be insufficient to ensure health, safety and welfare, and that these structures are in imminent danger of falling," Deputy City Manager Stephanie Kellum said.

The city is making progress in their efforts to remove properties that are not livable.

"The city of Trotwood had 1,106 properties that were damaged or destroyed by the tornadoes," Kellum said. "Of those properties, excluding the eight we're going to have demolished by FEMA, we only have 22 properties that either need to be demolished or repaired."

The eight houses were not insured, and have multiple damages, including missing roofs and trees down in the yard. They will be razed, footers removed, and turned into green space for developers to purchase and buildnew homes to bring people back to the community. "Thousands of families were living with family members, friends, some of them moved to other counties, but they want to return to their homes," Kellum said.

The record 15 tornadoes that touched down in the Dayton region that weekend created a housing deficit, but areas are working to rebuild their properties. The Westbrook Village Apartments were hit hard, and used every penny of their insurance money to repair the property said property owner, Daniel Penn.

"We just completed the rebuilding on our 13th building," he said. Ten of their 13 buildings are currently occupied while they continue to make upgrades to the exterior of the property including new playground equipment and repaving the parking lot.

"Nobody asked for this [tornadoes] to happen. People see that we are committed to Trotwood and now other people are following suit and they're not running away."

At Wolf Creek Run, home builder DR Horton has also started building houses and opened their model house in April. They have sold more than 25 homes. The new home plans will start in the low $160,000s and have four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and about 1,911 square feet of living space. There will be other plans that range from 1,260 to 2,460 square feet with both ranch and two-story designs.

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