City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: November 18, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.S
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Oliver Chi, City Manager, City Manager's Office
Subject: Adoption of a Resolution Approving and Adopting the City of Santa Monica's Updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines;
2. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Monica approving and adopting the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan;
3. Direct staff to forward copies of the approved and adopted City of Santa Monica Hazard Mitigation Plan and Resolution as necessary or as required by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and/or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency before the next formal five-year update; and
4. Authorize staff to make modifications to the City of Santa Monica’s Hazard Mitigation Plan as necessary or required by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and/or the Federal Emergency Management Agency before the next five-year update.
Executive Summary
The City of Santa Monica has completed an update to its Local Hazard Mitigation Plan that describes and analyzes hazards within Santa Monica and provides the City direction to reduce losses from these hazards through the implementation of mitigation actions. Federal law (Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act) requires that each jurisdiction create and submit Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs) as a condition of receiving non-emergency hazard mitigation grant funding. The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) oversees many of these grant programs and is responsible for approving HMPs 2 of 11
for funding eligibility. FEMA emphasizes the importance of these plans, stressing they “form the foundation of a community’s long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses” and promote investment in community-based, risk-reduction measures. A mitigation plan must meet several requirements to obtain FEMA approval, including the adoption by the local jurisdiction.
A major disaster event can have long-lasting individual, economic, environmental and societal impacts on a community. Mitigation, reducing the adverse impacts of a disaster or hazardous event, is a core element of emergency management and the disaster cycle. The presented plan aligns with the recently revised and adopted Safety Element of the City’s General Plan that was approved by Santa Monica City Council in 2024.
Both plans examine similar natural and human-made hazards to identify hazardreduction goals and strategies. The hazards examined in the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (referred to as “Plan”) include:
• Earthquakes
• Tsunamis
• Flood Hazards
• Landslides
• Wildfires and Urban Fires
• Climate Change and Severe Weather
• Hazardous Materials
• Airport Hazards
The analysis identified six natural hazards that pose a more significant risk to Santa Monica: earthquake, tsunami, wildfire, flood inundation due to dam failure, extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, and sea-level rise. Other evaluated hazards that pose a lower risk to the city include coastal flooding, landslides, structure fires, hazardous materials releases, and airport crashes. The Plan provides the City with specific actions to take aimed at reducing Santa Monica’s potential disaster impacts and are focused on disasters that pose the greatest local risk. Mitigation actions are aligned with the long-range goals of the Safety Element and promote the City Council’s priorities 3 of 11
of fostering a safe community and delivering projects that promote equity.
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Upon Santa Monica City Council adoption, the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan will be reviewed and approved by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and ultimately FEMA to ensure the Plan meets federal standards.
Background
The Disaster Mitigation Action of 2000 (DMA 2000) amended the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), creating hazard mitigation planning requirements for state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to receive nonemergency disaster assistance. Federal requirements are included in the Code of Federal Regulations, Stafford Act Title 44, Chapter 1, Part 201 (44 CFR Part 201).
FEMA requires agencies to review and update mitigation plans every five years and is responsible for final approval of local, tribal, and state plans. FEMA recently updated its Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide in April 2025 to interpret 44 CFR Part 201 setting forth requirements for local governments when writing, updating, and implementing hazard mitigation plans and the process and standards for plan approval by state and federal governments. Santa Monica’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan has been written to meet updated criteria.
The City of Santa Monica last received approval for a HMP update in 2016. Although the city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) planned to complete HMP updates in 2020, the division was tasked with directing the City’s COVID-19 pandemic’s response and recovery. OEM’s priority project since the end of the local COVID-19 Emergency Order in February 2023 has been to complete the outdated HMP. In June 2023, OEM hired a consultant, Earth Consultants International, Inc. (ECI) to conduct a detailed analysis of Santa Monica’s local hazards and update the Plan to meet FEMA’s updated requirements. ECI also completed the Safety Element’s technical background report. Selecting the same vendor ensured consistency in hazard analysis and expedited planning efforts needed to restore grant funding opportunities. 4 of 11
Discussion
The city’s Hazard Mitigation Plan is designed to meet FEMA’s requirements and is divided into three volumes:
1. Mitigation Action Plan – This volume provides information on Santa Monica’s hazard mitigation planning process. The volume includes a community profile and general risk assessment. Report provides 2016 action item progress updates and presents the currently recommended mitigation action items.
2. Hazard Analysis – Volume 2 examines each hazard in depth, reviewing regional historical incidents, local climate, geologic, and built conditions, and a literature review of related scientific findings related to the local hazards. The earthquake, tsunami, and flood chapters include risk assessment information from FEMA’s GIS-based software, HazUS, estimating local building damage, economic loss, and casualties/fatalities during disaster scenarios.
3. Appendices – Provide mitigation resources for the community, including a directory of federal, state and local agencies engaged in mitigation work, a list of disaster events that have occurred in California since 1950, and maps used in the report that demonstrate hazard and vulnerability information.
The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan serves as a powerful tool for the city and community partners to prioritize emergency planning needs and design programs that promote equity in disaster preparedness and mitigation by addressing underlying community disparities. A Resilience Planning Committee of multi-department leadership and external community stakeholders reviewed hazard analysis findings and social vulnerability data. The committee completed a workshop to prioritize the majority of proposed mitigation action items to reduce hazard impact on the Santa Monica community. The group worked to identify programs that were aligned with City departments’ existing workplans and budgets, striving to accomplish mitigation projects that were realistic and attainable.
During the two years that the City worked to complete its Plan, several natural disasters impacted the city of Santa Monica. This diverted Office of Emergency Management staff’s focus on the Plan in order to lead response and recovery activities. The events 5 of 11
also required sections of the Plan to be revised. The most notable event was the 2025 Palisades Fire and windstorm that caused extensive destruction in the Los Angeles neighborhood directly north of Santa Monica. The wildfire killed 12 people and destroyed over 6,800 structures in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. The event required Santa Monica to initiate an evacuation order for northern sections of the city and created 445 tons of wind debris, including dozens of large, downed trees. The January 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires saw incredible structure loss in urban environments, leveling blocks of homes and businesses once thought to be immune from direct wildfire impacts. In March 2025, the California Office of the State Fire Marshal’s updated the state’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps. For the first time, areas of Santa Monica were included in very high, high and moderate wildfire zones.
City personnel and ECI agreed that after these significant changes to local history and policy, the wildfire and climate change sections needed to be revised to present Santa Monica’s new wildfire reality. The final Plan presents these revisions and includes two additional wildfire mitigation actions that were agreed upon by Santa Monica Fire, OEM, Community Development Department, and ECI but were not identified or prioritized by the Resilience Planning Committee. The final list of proposed mitigation actions is listed below.
Local Planning
• Water Deconfliction Planning: Identify strategies for immediate and long-term local potable water services during disaster events, such as seismic events, wildfire, or drought. Identify water deconfliction strategy to prioritize water usage during emergencies (i.e. recreational pools vs. firefighting needs). • Evacuation Planning: Evaluate multi-modal citywide evacuation routes identified by the City’s revised Safety Element and create a citywide evacuation plan for emergency events, such as a tsunami, dam inundation, or wildfire. Plan to include evacuation considerations for persons with access and functional needs, including those without access to private transportation and persons living in assisted living and high-rise buildings. Publicize to the community. 6 of 11
• Santa Monica Airport Space Design: In the planning of the Santa Monica Airport space, ensure that emergency preparedness, mitigation, and response features are included, such as the storage of disaster cache supplies and space for emergency operations (owned/operated and available for use by public safety departments).
Local Assessment & Regulation Projects
• Santa Monica Bluffs and I-10 Freeway Slope & Brush Fire Mitigation:
Continue to inspect and monitor Santa Monica bluffs and I-10 freeway slope stability and brush overgrowth. Where necessary, implement actions needed to mitigate land instability, especially during rain and seismic events, and clear brush and other debris to mitigate brush fires.
• Red Flag Warning Restrictions: Implement policy that during any Red Flag Warning, restrictive measures will be implemented to reduce fire ignition opportunities and facilitate rapid first responder response activities. Restrictions to be considered include, but are not limited to, parking restrictions in very high hazard zones and evacuate routes, leaf blower bans, and construction activity bans.
• Resilient City Facility Design Standards: Implement and enhance a set of standards for City-owned and/or City/Tenant-operated facilities to make facilities more disaster-resilient, both to ensure their operability post-disaster and protect occupants. Prioritize seismic retrofits of public infrastructure and facilities to minimize potential damage, ensure protection of vulnerable populations, and continuity of government operations.
Structure & Infrastructure Projects
• Water Infrastructure Seismic Assessment: Examine water system resistance to local seismic hazards, especially water infrastructure that crosses potential liquefaction zones and areas where traces or projections of the Santa Monica fault have been mapped. Consider retrofitting older water pipelines and other strategies to address identified seismic vulnerabilities. 7 of 11
• Back-up Utilities: Identify and create program to implement critical, utility backup systems at City facilities and essential/emergency communications facilities, including but not limited to, microgrids, solar + storage, and other back-up, sustainable utility resources.
• Tsunami Alerting System: Implement overhead paging at Santa Monica Pier with ability to provide tsunami alerts and evacuation directions. Complete assessment of other communications tools, such as, but not limited to digital kiosks and siren systems, to widely distribute tsunami education and imminent threat alerts and warnings along Santa Monica’s coastal areas. Regularly test communications systems during earthquake/tsunami preparedness events, like the annual ShakeOut earthquake drill, California Tsunami Awareness, Natural Systems Improvement Projects
• Natural Dune Restoration Expansion: To protect beaches and beach-front properties from erosion, sea level rise, and coastal flooding, continue to expand and maintain the Natural Dune Beach Restoration projects. By the end of 2029, the goal would be to have at least 50 acres of established beach dunes. • Food Resilience Through Community Gardening: Increase production of food grown and donated from City-owned community gardens to local organizations to increase food resilience of vulnerable Santa Monica residents through the expansion of additional garden space.
Education and Awareness Programs
• Inclusive Emergency Communications: Conduct emergency response, mitigation, and preparedness outreach in multiple languages to better reach diverse Santa Monica communities, including international tourists and persons with access and functional needs. Create standards for emergency response messaging to ensure it meets standards in the City’s Language Access Administrative Instruction.
• Local Wildfire Safety Education: Develop education campaign on mandatory wildfire safety practices, such as defensible space standards and wildland urban 8 of 11
interface building codes, required for areas of Santa Monica within the 2025 State-identified Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.
City Readiness Initiatives
• Expand Critical Emergency Management Technologies: Expand City GIS mapping, staffing, training, and tools to better facilitate emergency planning and response activities, including use of public education and communications.
Expand on cloud infrastructure, data servers, and staffing to support the implementation, execution and maintenance of crucial technologies to support first responders. Continue adopting evacuation mapping technology to improve awareness of city evacuation zones, hazard areas, and assist with the prompt implementation of evacuation and shelter-in-place directions during emergencies.
The Resilience Planning Committee has a shared responsibility for implementing the HMP, overseen by the City Manager or their designee. The Office of Emergency Management will convene the Resilience Planning Committee annually to receive an update on action item progress and discuss any barriers. At this time, modifications to the Plan will be discussed, ensuring that the Plan stays current.
Interdepartmental Coordination and Public Outreach
Community participation is a guiding principle in hazard mitigation planning and a central requirement of state and federal agencies. Community engagement ensures mitigation actions fit the community’s needs and increases community hazard awareness and support for identified mitigation measures. The following activities were implemented to collaborate with staff across city departments and Santa Monica community members.
• Multi-Departmental and Stakeholder Committee: Santa Monica OEM created a multi-sector Resilience Planning Committee that received and reviewed the technical hazard analysis conducted by ECI. This team of community leaders and subject matter experts worked collaboratively to identify and prioritize 9 of 11
mitigation action items. Community leaders included representatives from local healthcare, education, private business, and non-profit sectors, especially those who are regularly involved in disaster response activities. • Public Survey: OEM and the city’s Community Development Department created a web-based and paper survey in English and Spanish to collect community feedback on natural and environmental hazards and share their perceived level of preparedness. This survey used non-random sampling methods. Outreach was conducted using existing city communications outlets and shared directly to local neighborhood organizations. Survey results informed the Resilience Planning Committee of community priorities and helped to craft mitigation action items.
• Community Workshops: ECI and OEM held several community workshops, available in-person and online and in English and Spanish. These presentations provided information on local hazards, including hazard maps and damage estimates. The online community workshop presentation is available on the City’s YouTube channel.
• Public Comment Period: In August-September 2025, the City’s draft plan was posted for a 30-day community review and comment period. The City promoted the public comment period through communications to community groups. The draft plan was also made available at two Santa Monica public libraries. Two persons provided feedback using an online survey that is addressed in the Plan. • Commission Input: OEM staff presented the LHMP to three Santa Monica commissions for additional community input: the Planning Commission, Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, and the Commission on Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and the Environment. Questions and feedback from the commissions were incorporated into the final report. OEM staff were also available for questions about the LHMP and disaster response during 2024 commission meetings about the Safety Element.
Financial Considerations
The National Institute of Building Science has found that for every $13 spent on hazard 10 of 11
mitigation projects, $6 is saved on disaster losses. Mitigation strategies not only reduce post-disaster financial and operational losses but also add value by building community resilience and safety.
There is no pre-identified City budget for the mitigation action items identified in this Plan. Understanding the constraints of the City’s current capital improvement budget and instability in the federal grant landscape, the Resilience Planning Commission identified mitigation action items that were realistic and did not require large amounts of unbudgeted funding.
Past Council Actions
Santa Monica’s first Local Hazard Mitigation Plan was approved by the City Council on September 28, 2004. The first update to the Plan was approved by Council on March 22, 2016. On February 11, 2025, the City Council adopted the Safety Element Update of the General Plan.
Santa Monica OEM anticipates FEMA to approve the updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan in spring 2026. Upon final approval, staff will seek Council’s approval to process an amendment to the City of Santa Monica’s General Plan to incorporate the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan as an appendix to the Safety Element.
Environmental Review
Adoption of the LHMP is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the CEQA Guidelines which states that CEQA does not apply “where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.” The LHMP outlines specific actions to take to reduce Santa Monica’s potential disaster impacts. Therefore, the LHMP would not result in adverse physical impacts on the environment and, as such, is exempt from CEQA.
Additionally, the LHMP is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15308 of the CEQA Guidelines. Section 15308 (Class 8) exempts actions taken by regulatory 11 of 11
agencies, as authorized by state or local ordinance, to assure the maintenance, restoration, enhancement, or protection of the environment where the regulatory process involves procedures for protection of the environment. The LHMP establishes actions that include pre-disaster preparedness and resiliency building of the physical environment. Therefore, the LHMP is exempt pursuant to Section 15308.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
There is no immediate financial impact or budget action necessary as a result of the recommended actions. Staff will return to Council if specific budget actions are required in the future.
Prepared By: Lindsay Call, Chief Resilience Officer
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. 2025 SM LHMP Volume 1: Mitigation Action Plan
B. 2025 SM LHMP Volume 2: Hazards
C. 2025 SM LHMP Volume 3: Appendices
D. SMLHMP Presentation_11.25
E. LHMP Approval Adoption Resolution_10.25 A
F. Written Comments
G. PowerPoint Presentation