City officials say an important step in recovery from the June 2008 flood that submerged most of downtown and caused about $6 billion in damage is moving houses out of areas most likely to flood again.

They plan to use $27 million in federal money to buy out property owners and create a park or wilderness trail along the river. A levee built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will separate remaining neighborhoods from the greenway and provide protection from another surge.

Residents who don't take the federal buyout will be caught between the river and levee, trapped in a kind of soup bowl where floodwaters could do even more damage.

But Rick Ellis, 58, remains undeterred. After last year's flood, he hauled 14,000 pounds of debris from his home, which he hopes to have fully habitable by October. He said he's willing to stick out the next flood and the one after because the buyout isn't enough for him and his girlfriend to buy another home.

"If [a flood] hits again, I'll fish off the front-porch roof," Ellis said.

More than two dozen of the 192 property owners the city tried to buy out with $27 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency money didn't take the deal or later backed out.

The city offered Ellis and his girlfriend the pre-flood assessed value of their home and land - about $86,000 - but subtracted about $25,000 the couple received in initial disaster assistance from FEMA.

"You can't get a house for $61,000 out here," Ellis said.

FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has been used nationwide to help buy out properties in floodplains.

In cities where residents decided not to leave a green space, they have become more vulnerable to flooding, Army Corps spokesman Ron Fournier said.

The details have not been worked out in Cedar Rapids, but officials say 30 percent to 80 percent of the greenway will be natural, with the city doing minimal maintenance.

The city has said it won't use eminent domain to force the property owners off their land. But the Army Corps could designate the properties as risks to the flood-protection system and force the owners to sell for pre-flood assessed values plus improvements. Fournier said that would be a last resort.

Some business owners in Cedar Rapids' floodplain say they have received a worse deal than homeowners: They were offered only the value of their land. And if they stay, there's no guarantee the Army Corps won't remove electric, water, and sewer lines from under the levee to prevent them from undermining the system.

Jason Beauregard, 34, thought he was getting a bargain when he paid $350,000 for property near the river after the flood. Now the city is offering him about $95,000.