COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES AGENCY

DATE:

August 15, 2006

BOARD MEETING DATE:

September 12, 2006

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

No

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Marcia Raines, Director of Environmental Services

SUBJECT:

Consideration of a resolution to adopt a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan for unincorporated San Mateo County.

RECOMMENDATION

Adopt a resolution (Attachment A) approving a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan for unincorporated San Mateo County.

VISION ALIGNMENT

Commitment: Ensure basic health and safety for all.

Goal: Maintain and enhance the public safety of all residents and visitors.

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government.

Goal: Government decisions are based on careful consideration of future impact, rather than temporary relief or immediate gain.

BACKGROUND

The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is required by the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000). In the Bay Area, ABAG is coordinating the development of local hazard mitigation plans for all counties and cities. Jurisdictions must adopt a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan to be eligible for FEMA hazard mitigation funds. These plans are required to be approved by FEMA and adopted by the Board of Supervisors in order for the County to be eligible for both pre-disaster and post-disaster mitigation grant programs from the Federal Government.

Each Local Hazard Mitigation Plan must have a regional component and a local component. The regional component is the Multi-Jurisdictional Local Government Hazard Mitigation Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area (Taming Natural Disasters) (Attachment B), which has already been adopted by ABAG. The local component is called “The Annex.” The “Annex” identifies the location and quantifies the amount of land in the County that is potentially susceptible to natural hazards and includes a Mitigation Strategy Worksheet that prioritizes strategies for mitigating the hazards (Attachment C).

The County’s Annex details the possible County assets that could be at risk. Those assets include local roads, water and sewer lines, schools, public facilities, and hospitals. Potential disasters discussed include earthquake faulting and shaking, earthquake induced landslides and liquefaction, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, wildfires, dam failure inundation, and drought.

For the Local Hazard Mitigation Strategy Worksheet, staff identified 1 of 7 priorities for each mitigation strategy. Specifically, the priorities were: (1) Existing Program, (2) Very High, (3) High, (4) Moderate, (5) Under Study, (6) Not Applicable, and (7) Not Yet Considered. For each mitigation strategy, the responsible implementing agency or department was identified. If a strategy was identified as an existing program, the adopting resolution or ordinance was listed. By adopting the strategies detailed in the worksheet, the County will be eligible to apply for grant money, but it will be limited to implementing those strategies that have been identified as Very High or High.

The County’s Annex and Local Hazard Mitigation Strategy Worksheet have been pre-approved by FEMA pending the Board of Supervisors’ approval. Once the resolution has been adopted, the plan will go back to FEMA for final approval. The County will then be required to adopt the plan as an amendment to the Natural Hazards Chapter of the General Plan.

In order to identify the priorities, Planning staff coordinated with many different County Departments including Public Works, Office of Emergency Services, County Fire, Building, and Environmental Health. Additionally, County Planning worked closely with ABAG, which served as the regional facilitator.

A draft of the proposed program was reviewed by the Planning Commission on May 11, 2005, in order to receive public input and to identify issues of high concern. Since then, the draft program was submitted to FEMA for review. FEMA pre-approved the draft program in January of this year. The Planning Commission approved the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan on August 9, 2006.

DISCUSSION

The County of San Mateo is susceptible to many natural disasters. The County is flanked by the ocean and lies over and near many seismic faults. The County faces risks of tsunamis, dam failure inundations, flooding, wildland fires, landslides, earthquakes, and liquefaction. For the safety and welfare of its residents, the County needs to be prepared if these disasters occur. The best way to be prepared is to adopt programs that mitigate in advance the impacts of disasters. Relief from disaster can be much greater as a result of preparation for the disaster rather than through reaction to the disaster.

The draft program lists all existing programs that the County is now carrying out. In addition to what is being done now, the program identifies new strategies that the County has determined to be Very High or High priority: (1) assessing the vulnerability of critical facilities, (2) retrofitting critical facilities, (3) developing a system of interoperable communications, (4) improving emergency response communications, (5) increasing patrolling during high fire season, (6) reducing wildland fire potential by managing vegetation, (7) requiring the use of fire resistant materials and fire resistant structural design, and (8) pre-position emergency power generation capacity in critical facilities.

In order for the County to be eligible for the pre-disaster and post-disaster mitigation grant programs, the County must have an approved plan that has been adopted by the County Board of Supervisors. If the plan is not adopted, the County would not be eligible for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) project grant money next year. Once the plan is approved, the grant money that would be available will help the County mitigate possible disasters or events that could affect the safety and welfare of San Mateo County.

FISCAL IMPACT

The County would become eligible to apply for federal grant funding to help mitigate natural disasters.

ATTACHMENTS

A.

Resolution

B.

Taming Natural Disasters – Multi-Jurisdictional Local Government Hazard Mitigation Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area (available for review)

C.

Local Hazard Mitigation Annex

D.

Natural Disaster Maps