Demolition started on the flood-damaged Time Check Recreation Center on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in northwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

In the latest chapter in the Time Check Recreation Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has informed the state and city that it has rejected the City Council’s August decision to replace the flood-ruined, now-demolished center by putting a new $3 million facility at the same place in the 100-year flood plain where June 2008 floodwaters climbed 14 feet high.

In a letter to the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division, FEMA’s regional office says that federal rules require the city to build replacement facilities outside the 100-year flood plain if “a practicable alternative” exists.

The FEMA letter, signed by Thomas Costello, FEMA’s recovery director in Kansas City, Mo., notes that the city of Cedar Rapids in past correspondence with FEMA identified two sites in Ellis Park outside the 100-year flood plain as possible locations for a replacement recreation center.

Should the City Council appeal FEMA’s rejection? What would you suggest as the best option in rebuilding the center?