City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: INFORMATION REPORTS
Lead Department: Office of Emergency Services
Meeting Date: March 23, 2026
Report #:2602-5971
TITLE
Palo Alto Local Hazard Mitigation Plan Annual Update for Calendar Year 2025; CEQA Status: Not a Project
RECOMMENDATION
This is an informational report as a status update on the Palo Alto Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
No Council action is required.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Office of Emergency Services provides this Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) annual report to share the progress the City has made as of December 2025 on LHMP projects over the prior twelve months. The purpose of this information report is to provide an update on the City’s implementation of the mitigation actions identified in the 2023 Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, Palo Alto Annex.
BACKGROUND
The City of Palo Alto, as part of the Santa Clara County multi-jurisdictional planning process (including participating local cities and special districts), developed a Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan from 2022- 2023 to meet Federal guidelines and thereby reduce risk from all hazards by identifying resources, information, and strategies for risk reduction. The Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires state and local governments to develop hazard mitigation plans as a condition for federal disaster grant assistance.
The performance period for the 2023 Santa Clara County Operational Area Hazard Mitigation Plan, Volume 1 became effective in February 2024 with the final approval of the plan by FEMA. FEMA approved the City of Palo Alto Local Jurisdictional Annex, Volume 2 in July 2024, and the Palo Alto City Council adopted both Volumes 1 and 2 on October 7, 2024. The performance period for this plan is five years.
The 2023 MJMHP Base Plan - Volume 1 and the Palo Alto Annex -Volume 2 which articulates
our local natural hazards and mitigation activities can be viewed online at https://www.paloalto.gov/lhmp.
ANALYSIS
OES coordinated this update with departmental staff members responsible or knowledgeable of each of the projects on this list. As of this reporting period, the performance period for this plan is considered to be 44% complete (including completed, ongoing projects, and closed/discontinued projects). This includes 17 actions that were part of the previous 2017 LHMP that were not completed, and 10 new actions. Each action provides a description of the action, what hazard(s) applies to the action, the lead agency for the action, potential sources of funding, expected timeline for completion, the priority assigned to the action, and current status of the action.
● 3 out of 27 initiatives (11%) have been completed.
● 7 out of 27 initiatives (26%) indicated work is conducted as an ongoing capability. ● 14 out of 27 initiatives (52%) reported progress toward completion. ● 1 out of 27 initiatives (4%) reported having not started. ● 2 out of 27 initiatives (7%) are closed and not will not be continued.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
No additional resource impact is expected at this time.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
OES coordinated this update with departmental staff members responsible or knowledgeable of each of the projects on this list.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This item is presented only for Council’s information and therefore it is not a project subject to environmental review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: City of Palo Alto LHMP Update CY2025
APPROVED BY:
OES Chief Ken Dueker, Director Office of Emergency Services