To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Zach Curren, Fire Chief
Prepared By: Shuree Egloff, Management Analyst
TITLE:
Title
Updated City of Napa Hazard Mitigation Plan
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution adopting the updated City of Napa Hazard Mitigation Plan and determining that the actions authorized by this Resolution are exempt from CEQA.
Body
DISCUSSION:
In 2004, the City of Napa was selected to receive a grant from the California Office of
Emergency Services (Cal OES) for the development of a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The HMP was updated, reviewed, and adopted by Council on May 18, 2010 and again on November 17, 2015. In 2020, the City of Napa was again selected to receive a grant from Cal OES for another HMP update. The HMP is required to be updated every five (5) years by the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Once the updated HMP is adopted by the City it will be submitted to California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The approval of the Updated City of Napa HMP will bring the City of Napa into compliance with the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which allows us to be eligible for federal grants and FEMA reimbursement for federally declared disasters.
Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP)
The HMP provides an explanation of potential hazards within the city. Hazard mitigation is the use of sustained, long-term actions to reduce the loss of life, personal injury, and property damage that can result from a disaster. Planning efforts include proposed capital projects and other pragmatic activities that can mitigate or otherwise lessen the impacts of identified hazards. The 2021 HMP update covers each of the major natural hazards that pose risks to City infrastructure and residents. Recognizing that successful mitigation planning efforts must be communicated and understood by the public, the City’s approach included stakeholder participation and input with the use of cutting edge GIS technology to map and update the hazard information for each hazard profiled in the 2021 HMP. It also describes how hazards may impact the city based on various factors such as hazard type and geographic distribution of risk in relation to people and property within the city.
The HMP identifies risks to vulnerable assets, both people and property. Most importantly, the mitigation strategy presented in the HMP responds to the identified vulnerabilities within the community and provides recommendations to achieve the greatest risk reduction based upon available resources. The City intends to save lives, reduce injuries, reduce property damage, and protect natural resources for future generations through mitigation activities.
An HMP can reduce property damage, injuries, and even deaths when hazard events strike. Mitigating hazards can also help reduce impacts from loss of critical services within communities. The purpose of the HMP is twofold. First, it provides resources for the city and residents wishing to conduct hazard mitigation efforts by identifying areas of extreme risk and providing financial and technical mitigation resources based upon current gaps. Second, it provides the city continued access to grant funding from FEMA to conduct hazard mitigation activities. The passage of the Disaster Mitigation Act in 2000 (DMA 2000) requires proactive hazard mitigation planning as a condition of receiving certain federal financial assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Act. DMA 2000 encourages state and local authorities to work together on pre-disaster planning to assist local governments to accurately assess mitigation needs, resulting in faster allocation of funding and more cost-effective risk reduction projects under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance program.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) approved and obligated Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds to the City of Napa for the Local Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan Update in the amount of $100,000. $75,000 is the obligated federal share reimbursement of eligible costs.
CEQA:
City staff recommends that the City Council determine that the Recommended Action is exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15262 (Feasibility and Planning Studies) and Section 15061(b)(3) (common sense exemption) because it can be seen with certainty that the adoption of the HMP will not have a significant effect on the environment as the HMP is a planning study which informs the City of hazard vulnerabilities and possible future actions to mitigate risks, and adoption of the HMP is not a commitment to any future action, nor is it a decision to approve, adopt, or fund any of the potential mitigation actions identified in the HMP.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - Resolution
EX A - Hazard Mitigation Plan
NOTIFICATION:
None