Approval of the County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan does not impose any requirement on the Flood Control District or the Fire Protection District, which would result in a fiscal impact. On the other hand, failure to adopt the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan may preclude the Districts from obtaining FEMA Disaster Mitigation funds or Disaster Recovery funds in the future. (100% Flood Control District Funds)
On June 28, 2011, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors conducted a properly noticed public hearing, and adopted both an amendment to the General Plan and the CCCHMP. This plan was prepared to cover the County, and 35 additional agencies, special districts, and cities. The original intent was for this Board to approve the plan not only for Contra Costa County, but also for the Flood Control District and for the Fire Protection District. Unfortunately, due to staff oversight, the Board’s June 28, 2011, action covered only Contra Costa County, not the Board-governed, dependent special districts that had participated in the creation of (and are also covered by) the CCCHMP. Today’s Board action corrects this omission and provides specific Board approval of the CCCHMP to clarify that the CCCHMP also covers the Flood Control District and the Fire Protection District.
The Federal Disaster Act of 2000 requires local governments to adopt a comprehensive Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) to receive federal funding after a disaster. By law, an HMP must describe the type, location, and extent of all natural hazards that can affect a jurisdiction; describe the jurisdiction’s vulnerability to these hazards; include a mitigation strategy that provides the jurisdiction’s blueprint for reducing the potential losses; and contain a planned maintenance process. The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 strongly encourages state and local authorities to work together on predisaster planning, and it promotes “sustainable hazard mitigation,” which includes sound management of natural resources, local economic and social resiliency, and the recognition that hazards and mitigation must be understood in the largest possible social and economic context.
Hazard Mitigation Plan Adoption
County staff from the Public Works Department and the Office of Emergency Services secured a FEMA planning grant to prepare a comprehensive and integrated multi-jurisdictional HMP focused on Contra Costa County.
Once the FEMA planning grant was awarded in Fall 2007, key staff from the Department of Public Works and the Office of Emergency Services assembled a planning partnership of 36 Contra Costa agencies, including the County, cities, and special districts. The partnership collaborated in the development of the update to the HMP in a five-phase planning process over a 24-month period. It resulted in a two-volume document that provides a comprehensive blueprint for hazard risk reduction in Contra Costa County for the next five years. Attached for the Board of Supervisors consideration under Exhibit One are excerpts from the two volume plan, including the Executive Summary and the Flood Control District’s and the Fire Protection District’s annexes to the plan.
The ensuing planning process developed a new HMP for the County and its planning partners from scratch, using lessons learned from a previous Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) regional planning effort. While this HMP is an update for many of the planning partners, it is the initial plan for others, such as the Flood Control and Fire Protection Districts. The updated HMP differs from the ABAG hazard mitigation plan, as follows:
• The updated HMP has been totally restructured as a Countywide regional plan, focusing only on Contra Costa County. The risk assessment is not a subset of a larger regional effort. It is isolated to Contra Costa County and focuses on hazards of concern for the County.
• The updated HMP was expanded to include special purpose districts as planning partners.
• The risk assessment has been formatted to better support future grant applications by providing risk and vulnerability information that will directly support the measurement of “cost-effectiveness” required under FEMA mitigation grant programs.
• Newly available data and tools provide for a more detailed and accurate risk assessment. The ABAG regional hazard mitigation plan did not use tools such as FEMA’s Hazards U.S. Multi-Hazard (HAZUS-MH) computer model or new data, such as FEMA’s Countywide Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs).
• The updated HMP gave the County and its planning partners an opportunity to engage local citizens and gauge their perception of risk and support for risk reduction through mitigation.
An Initial Study/Negative Declaration was prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. The Initial Study/Negative Declaration describes the proposed project; it identifies, analyzes, and evaluates the potential impacts, which may result from the HMP adoption; and no significant environmental effects were found to result from the HMP adoption. The Initial Study/Negative Declaration was circulated for a 30-day comment period, but no comments were received.
If not approved, the result would be inability to apply for and receive FEMA Disaster Mitigation Funds and/or disqualification from receiving state disaster assistance funding.