The state is applying for the National Disaster Resiliency Competition, hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for communities that have been affected by a natural disaster in 2011, 2012 or 2013.
Longmont and other Boulder County communities were severely damaged by the September 2013 flood.
The competition will parcel out $1 billion total, with a maximum award of $500 million to any one applicant.
The state of Colorado was one of 40 applicants that advanced to Stage 2 of the competition. Now, the state must submit its Stage 2 application to HUD by Oct. 27 and the public has the opportunity to comment on the state's application until Oct. 21. HUD will announce the winners in January.
The state is applying for money on behalf of Boulder, Larimer and El Paso counties, and Longmont's Resilient St. Vrain project is a large portion of the state's $419 million request.
The Resilient St. Vrain project (formerly the St. Vrain Improvement project) is a $194 million flood recovery project shared between the city and Boulder County. Resilient St. Vrain aims to widen the river channel in several places from Airport Road to Sandstone Ranch, decreasing the floodplain and allowing for economic development in the city's core.
Longmont Public Works and Natural Resources manager Dale Rademacher told the City Council last week that the city is responsible for about $164 million of the total $194 million project cost and Boulder County is responsible for roughly $29.6 million.
Rademacher said the city is requesting a total of about $88.6 million from the National Disaster Resiliency Competition comprising:
• $56.5 million for major floodway renovations
• $3.5 million to extend the St. Vrain Greenway east to St. Vrain State Park
• $20 million for an ecology resiliency education center
• $4 million for a public plaza near the river
• $4.6 million for a 5 percent administrative cost offset
Boulder County is requesting $7.5 million from the contest comprising:
• $3.5 million to prepare the river breaches west of Longmont
• $3.5 million to extend the St. Vrain Greenway west to Lyons
• $500,000 for an environmental educational center near Hygeine
Rademacher told the council that he thinks Longmont has a good shot at getting funded because the city's flood recovery work could be used as a model for similar communities damaged by floods.
"What we're trying to do is show how our work can be replicated in communities across the country because that's important to HUD," Rademacher said. "Ours in particular is good for a western-type of flood that is a western flash flood-type of situation ... What Longmont experienced can be experienced by any community up and down the Front Range from Montana to New Mexico."
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