City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: INFORMATION REPORTS
Lead Department: Office of Emergency Services
Meeting Date: December 18, 2023
Report #:2311-2266
TITLE
Local Hazard Mitigation Plan Update
RECOMMENDATION
This is an Informational Report on the City of Palo Alto Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) annual update for July 1, 2022 through October 1, 2023; no action is needed by the City Council
BACKGROUND
The Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA) requires all cities, counties, and special districts to adopt a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) as a best practice to identify natural hazards and develop mitigation strategies to reduce risk to the community. An adopted LHMP also allows a jurisdiction to receive disaster mitigation funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The DMA provides that a local agency may adopt a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan or participate in the preparation of and adopt a Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Between 2016 and 2017, the City of Palo Alto participated in the Santa Clara County multi- jurisdictional planning process resulting in a Countywide Local Hazards Mitigation Plan (LHMP).
The County contracted with TetraTech, Inc, a provider of emergency management consulting services, to facilitate the development of the County-wide plan. This multi-jurisdictional plan was approved by the State of California and FEMA; the Palo Alto Annex to this plan was adopted by the City Council on October 16, 20171.
The County Plan may be found here –
October 16, 2017, 1 City Council, Item #6:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/Public/CompiledDocument?meetingTemplateId=1927&compileOutputType= 1 •Volume 1:
https://emergencymanagement.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb261/files/For%20Partner s/Local-Hazard-Mitigation-Plan-LHMP-Vol-1.pdf
•Volume 2:
https://emergencymanagement.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb261/files/For%20Partner s/Local-Hazard-Mitigation-Plan-LHMP-Vol-2.pdf
The Palo Alto specific plan and planning process may be found at the following weblink:
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/lhmp Prior to this, the City of Palo Alto published Local Hazard Mitigation Plans in conjunction with the Santa Clara County’s Office of Emergency Management in 2005 and 2012.
The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is a companion document to the City’s Threats and Hazards Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) plan that describes not only natural hazards but also technological and Intentional hazards that pose a risk to our community.
ANALYSIS
One component of the plan maintenance cycle is an annual progress review of each mitigation project in the LHMP. OES leads this annual review by soliciting updates from each department that has responsibility for one or more projects and develops the final annual report. OES maintains project status in a mitigation planning database provided by TetraTech as part of their contract with the County.
The Palo Alto portion of the Santa Clara County Operational Area Hazard Mitigation Plan has targeted 38 hazard mitigation actions to be pursued during the 5-year performance period. As of this reporting period, this plan is considered to be 47% complete (including complete and ongoing projects); the following overall progress can be reported:
•11 out of 38 initiatives (29%) have been completed.
•11 out of 38 initiatives (29%) indicated work is conducted as an ongoing capability. •11 out of 38 initiatives (29%) reported progress toward completion. •5 out of 38 initiatives (16%) reported no progress.
All of these 38 mitigation actions remain part of staff’s LHMP priorities, however, acknowledge that during this five-year cycle progress has been impacted by unexpected circumstance such as COVID-19 which impacted focus on implementation county wide. The LHMP five-year cycle formally ended on December 19, 2022, requiring the City of Palo Alto to provide a formal update to this plan. This update cycle timing is driven by Santa Clara County, which is why this update is being reported now. Between 2022 and 2023, the Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Management conducted a Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP) process among cities and special districts within the county, of which the City of Palo Alto was a participant. Staff worked with County representatives and their contractor to provide the appropriate inputs as required by federal guidance. The County submitted the MJHMP to the State of California Office of Emergency Services for a state level review. Following this state review, Cal OES will submit the plan to FEMA for federal review. Once approved by FEMA, we will request that the City Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, as an annex to the County plan, be adopted by City Council.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
This report is an informational item; no associated fiscal or resource impact; however, staff resources are required to support review, updates, and implementation of actions in the plan.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Stakeholder engagement was conducted by Santa Clara County. The County and their contractor held community meetings, public surveys, and other such outreach efforts.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This report is for informational purposes only with no action required by the Council and is therefore not a project subject to CEQA review.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Hazard Mitigation Plan Progress Report for the July 1, 2022 to October 1, 2023 Reporting Period
APPROVED BY:
Chief Kenneth Dueker, Director Office of Emergency Services