Only a handful of residents turned out Oct. 14 at Achilles Elementary School to offer comments about property Gloucester County has acquired, or will soon acquire, under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

Under terms of the federal program, often called HMGP, the county must have a plan in place for each parcel it acquires with grant funding. The purpose of the meeting was to gather public input on potential uses of the 14 parcels that the county has acquired, mostly in Guinea, since the 2009 plan was adopted.

Residents were asked to write down comments on forms and place them in a box for planning staff review or e-mail comments after the meeting. The comment sheets must be reviewed by planning staff before they will be made public, said Anne Ducey-Ortiz, director of planning and zoning.

Marcia Mickle of Severn said she would like to see more properties in flood-prone areas to be elevated instead of acquiring a number of scattered prope...