TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Daryn Drum, Fire Chief
Scott Hafdell, Battalion Chief
Claudio Taniguchi, Emergency Services Coordinator
Walberto Martin, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consider Approving the City of Manhattan Beach Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (Fire Chief Drum).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 19-0039
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 19-0039 approving the City of Manhattan Beach Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) and direct staff to initiate amendments to the General Plan Community Safety and other required General Plan Elements.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The recommended action will have no direct fiscal impact to the City’s General Fund. Adoption of the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) allows the City to be to be eligible for pre and post disaster Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mitigation grant funding. The City may also be eligible for enhanced state reimbursement of qualified disaster recovery expenses if it includes the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan as part of the General Plan’s Community Safety Element. Amendments to the General Plan will require staff time and resources.
BACKGROUND:
In 2000, Congress passed the Disaster Mitigation Act, which requires local governments to reduce risks from natural hazards through mitigation planning in order to be eligible for pre and post disaster FEMA funding.
An LHMP identifies risks, vulnerabilities, and long-term strategies for protecting people, property, and the environment.
The City of Manhattan Beach adopted its first LHMP in 2008. The City started the process of creating a new LHMP in 2015. The process included numerous opportunities for public participation, including meetings with local businesses, community members, stakeholders, and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The State Office of Emergency Services received a draft of the plan in July 2017. The State preliminarily approved the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan in December 2017 and FEMA preliminarily approved the plan in June 2018. FEMA requires that the City submit formal adoption documentation by May 15, 2019, after which FEMA will fully approved the LHMP.
DISCUSSION:
The City of Manhattan Beach completed its 2018 LHMP to ensure compliance with State and Federal law and to be eligible to apply for and receive pre-and post-disaster assistance and other FEMA assistance.
Under the terms of the Disaster Mitigation Act, which seeks to reduce federal expenditures for catastrophic events, a county, city, tribe, or special district affected by a declared disaster (i.e. earthquake, flood or wildfire) will still be able to receive emergency aid without having an approved plan in place. However, it would be ineligible for FEMA funds to support hazard-mitigation projects, such as repairing drainage that poses reoccurring flooding problems or seismic retrofitting vulnerable structures.
The Manhattan Beach LHMP meets the requirements of the Disaster Mitigation Act, which calls for all communities to prepare hazard mitigation plans. By preparing the LHMP, the City is eligible to receive Federal mitigation funding after disasters and to apply for mitigation grants before disasters strike. More importantly, this LHMP starts an ongoing process to evaluate the risks different hazards pose to the City and to engage the City and the community in a dialogue to identify the steps that are most important in reducing these risks. The potential hazards identified and assessed in this version of the LHMP include Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Landslides, Floods, Climate Change, Drought, and Adverse Weather.
Manhattan Beach addresses statewide planning goals and legislative requirements through its General Plan, Capital Improvement Plans, and City Building and Safety Codes. The LHMP provides a series of recommendations that are consistent and in line with the goals and objectives of existing planning programs including the General Plan Community Safety Element. Using the General Plan as a guideline, the LHMP planning team and consultants developed five goals with associated objectives to reduce or avoid long-term vulnerabilities to identified hazards. The goals align the Safety Element and the LHMP. The LHMP goals are the following:
1) Protect life, property, and reduce injuries from natural hazards.
2) Improve public understanding to support and the need for hazard mitigation measures.
3) Balance natural resource management and land use planning with natural hazard mitigation to protect life, property, and environment.
4) Strengthen partnerships and collaboration to implement hazard mitigation activities.
5) Coordinate and integrate natural hazard mitigation activities where appropriate with emergency operations plans and procedures.
The primary goal set by the Community Safety Element is to minimize risk to public health, safety, and welfare resulting from natural and human caused hazards. The LHMP identifies risk assessments, vulnerabilities, capabilities and long-term mitigation strategies based on the highest risk factors faced by the City. The City currently supports hazard mitigation through its regulations, plans, and programs. The Manhattan Beach Municipal Code outlines hazard mitigation-related ordinances; additionally, pursuant to State planning laws, the General Plan’s Community Safety Element includes policies and programs to protect the community for risks associated with seismic, geological, flood, and fire hazards.
The second, but equally important, goal set by the Community Safety Element is to protect residents from hazardous materials and the hazards associated with the transport of such materials. The Emergency Response Plan and the Fire Department Master Plan establish official City policy for response to emergencies in hazard-prone programs. These legal and regulatory plans adopted by the City include the General Plan Community Safety Element, Emergency Operations Plan, National Flood Insurance Program, Climate Action Plan, Water Conservation, Storm preparedness, and Fire Safe Clean-up and Chipping Program. The Community Safety Element also provides goals to maintain a high level of emergency response and police protection services.
Per State Senate Bill 379, cities are required to conduct a “climate change vulnerability assessment" (including flood risk), identify measures to address vulnerabilities, and create a comprehensive hazard mitigation and emergency response strategy. Currently, the City is conducting an analysis of the City’s vulnerabilities to climate change and developing a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan in 2019-2020. Supported by grant funding from the California Coastal Commission and consistent with California Coastal Act policies, the City will be more prepared for climate change and associated sea level rise, extreme high tides, frequency of storm events, and coastal erosion through a vulnerability analysis and adaptation plan. The project includes completing a sea level rise vulnerability assessment; creating a climate adaptation plan; and updating the City’s Local Coastal Program-Land Use Plan, Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, and General Plan.
For FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant program and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, a local jurisdiction must have an approved LHMP to be eligible for funding for presidentially declared disasters after November 1, 2004. In compliance with FEMA guidelines, updates to the LHMP should occur every five years.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
Development of the LHMP included input from a multitude of community organizations, stakeholders, and public entities. The LHMP required and encouraged organizations at all levels, local, residents, business, and the non-profit sector, to participate in the mitigation planning and implementation process. Meeting agendas and sign in sheets are available for public view in Appendix C of the LHMP final report. This broad public participation enables the development of mitigation actions supported by these various stakeholders and reflects the needs of the entire community.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that the activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the State CEQA Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no further legal analysis is necessary.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 19-0039
2. Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
3. Authorization of Pre-Approval FEMA Letter