Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York wants to spend as much as $400 million to buy and raze damaged homes in the floodplains of New York State. These properties, victims of Hurricane Sandy, would then be turned into parks, bird sanctuaries, dunes or simply stretches of open beach, serving as buffer zones to protect residents inland from future floods.

It is, in concept, a splendid idea. It needs federal approval, and there are many details to be worked out. But assuming enough homeowners go along, it offers a promising approach to minimizing future damage from the hundred-year storms that seem to be arriving with increasing frequency in this age of climate change.

The governor’s plan would pay the full prestorm value of a house to owners who agreed to sell, with a 5 percent bonus to those who relocated in their home county. The plan would be voluntary; a homeowner could simply refuse to participate, and presumably elect to rebuild, despite higher insurance rates that doing so would entail.

The Cuomo administration estimates that 10,000 or so homes sit squarely in the danger zone, but, only a fraction — 10 percent to 15 percent — of these owners might actually participate in this program. The plan would not cover high-end properties like a wreck of a beachfront house in the Rockaways that is now on sale for $3 million “as is.” But the price tag could go as high as $300,000 per dwelling, assuming the Department of Housing and Urban Development approves the plan.