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Supervisors add hazard mitigation plan to General Plan

A hazard mitigation plan has been added to the Public Safety Element of the county’s General Plan.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ 3-0 vote April 23, with Supervisors Ron Roberts and Bill Horn absent, approved the amendment to the county’s General Plan which incorporated the hazard mitigation plan into the Public Safety Element.

The supervisors also found the amendment to be categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act guidelines.

In October 2004 the County of San Diego approved a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is a multi-jurisdictional plan covering the county’s 18 incorporated cities as well as the unincorporated area.

The state legislature subsequently passed a bill which authorizes a city or county to adopt a local hazard mitigation plan within the Safety Element of its general plan and proposed penalties on local jurisdictions which have not adopted a hazard mitigation plan by limiting non-complying jurisdictions to no more than 75 percent of eligible California Disaster Assurance Act state payments.

The hazard mitigation plan includes a summary of potential hazard-related exposure in the county including the population, number of residential and commercial buildings, and number of critical facilities vulnerable to coastal storms and erosion, dam failures, earthquakes, floods, rain-induced landslides, tsunamis, and wildfires.

The summary also includes the value of the vulnerable buildings and facilities.

The plan identifies fire, hazardous materials release, flooding, earthquakes, and man-made hazards as the five most likely scenarios.

The goals of the plan include promoting disaster-resistant future development, increasing public understanding and support for effective hazard mitigation, building and supporting local capacity and commitment to reducing vulnerability, and enhancing hazard mitigation coordination and communication with Federal, state, local, and tribal governments.

Codes are slated to be reviewed every three years and the general plan is targeted for an update every ten years.

The top ten prioritized actions are coordinating the development of a multi-jurisdictional plan, developing two multi-hazard assessment teams, updating the county’s Consolidated Fire Code every three years, promoting cooperative vegetation management programs which incorporate hazard mitigation, publicizing and encouraging adoption of appropriate hazard mitigation actions, updating building codes to reflect current earthquake standards, reviewing and comparing existing flood control standards with regard to zoning and building requirements, developing a business continuity plan for each county department, developing partnerships for a countywide vegetation management program, and encouraging the public to prepare and to maintain a three-day preparedness kit for home and work.

 

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