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Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to buy up your Sandy damaged home and sell them over to land developers, according to a report by WNYC.

Following the lead of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who wants to spend $400 million to buy up Sandy homes at pre-Sandy values, Bloomberg wants a similar plan for the city. The difference is that under Cuomo’s plan, the land would be converted into parks, public spaces and wetlands, while Bloomberg wants to use the land to sell to real estate developers.

Brad Gair, the director of the city’s housing recovery testified at a City Council meeting as to why the mayor is pursuing this plan.

“These are valuable properties,” WNYC reported Gair saying at the meeting. “There is a limited amount of coastline properties.”

Criticism of the plan surrounds the economic risk the taxpayers incur should the redeveloped lands be flooded again:

James Fraser, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, says the requirement protects taxpayers from having to pay twice for the same property: to buy it out, and then again later, if it gets flooded.

“When a locality continues to develop in a flood plains, they are not only putting themselves at risk,” Fraser, who has researched FEMA buyouts, said. “They are putting the nation at risk because financially FEMA has to pay for future flooding.”

Mayor Bloomberg has suggested that modern construction methods, such as elevating homes above the 100-year-flood level, will make them sufficiently flood-proof for the future. Fraser says modern rebuilding helps, but it doesn’t solve the whole problem.

“You still have impervious surface and that impervious surface is going to contribute to the amount of flooding that’s experienced in the surrounding area,” he said.

For Bloomberg’s plan to go through, he’ll need permission from the federal government, which wants to ensure that buyouts are based on pre-storm values and that those selling are given adequate assistance to relocate.

New Yorkers displaced from their homes because of Superstorm Sandy have a chance to gain some affordable housing via the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Preference will be given to storm victims in a lottery to gain affordable housing in the new Coney Island Commons development, according to a press release.

HPD Commissioner Matthew Wambua announced that a 25 percent preference will be given to Sandy victims who meet the requisite income-eligible qualifications.

The new Coney Island Commons, located near Surf Avenue, is being developed under Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), a plan that sets to add 165,000 units of affordable housing across the city for half a million New Yorkers by the end of 2014.

The idea to provide a bonus for Sandy victims to get on the ground-floor of this new development was a matter of common sense.

“The destruction caused by Sandy has made it very difficult for many low-income families to find affordable housing. This initiative is a creative way to utilize the City’s available resources to solve that problem,” said Brad Gair, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations, in the press release.

Here are the relevant details for those looking to apply:

Coney Island Commons, near Surf Avenue, is currently accepting applications. Completed applications must be returned by regular mail only and must be postmarked by March 26^th, 2013. Qualified applicants will be required to meet income and family size guidelines and additional selection criteria. To request an application, mail a post card to Coney Island Commons, c/o: ELH Mgmt. LLC 3^rd FL, 98 Rockwell Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217. Or download the application from www.coneyislandcommons.com. As per the City’s affordable housing lottery rules, current and eligible residents of Brooklyn Community Board 13 will receive preference for 50 percent of the units. In addition, income-eligible applicants who can document displacement by Hurricane Sandy and/or its related storms will receive preference for 25 percent of the units.

Located at 2960 West 29^th Street and 2961 West 30^th Street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, Coney Island Commons will have a total of 195 units—39 of which will be set aside for the homeless. The remaining 156 apartments will be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of Area Median Income (AMI)—equal to a household income of $49,800/year for a family of four. Of the 156 apartments, there is a preference for qualified households displaced by Hurricane Sandy for 39 units in the building. There are a total of 20 studio units, 55 one-bedroom units and 80 two-bedroom units, with one unit set aside for the superintendent. The anticipated completion date for the development is summer of 2013.