Guiding Principles
This section outlines the local government's broad, overall mitigation goals and will index the relevant portions of existing plans, policies, and ordinances with the components of the mitigation strategy as outlined in the guidebook.
Importance
One of the most important reasons for having a local mitigation strategy is to help a local government make decisions that will reduce its overall vulnerability to hazards. While many of these decisions are made after a disaster strikes, it is important to have a strategy in place to make sure that these actions reflect prior planning and coordination. The strategy will also help to ensure that the everyday activities of a local jurisdiction, like issuing building permits and approving development plans, promote hazard mitigation. The best way to start this process is to clearly state a community’s overall vision for hazard mitigation and to involve the public as well as representatives from other governments in the development of that vision. The guiding principles that are developed should work like a road map to ensure that a community addresses mitigation - before and after a disaster.
Expectations
A community should review and reference all existing plans, policies, and ordinances that relate to public safety, hazard mitigation, and long-term recovery. Many of the same ideas - like public safety and loss reduction - are repeated in these documents. When collated together through an indexing process, these common themes will establish the guiding principles for a community’s mitigation strategy.
Just as a community’s vision has already been defined through its existing goals and policies, most, if not all, of the local mitigation strategy criteria identified in this guidebook may be addressed in existing plans, policies, and ordinances. To avoid duplicating the effort that went into preparing these other documents, a table, or index should be prepared to show where the local mitigation strategy criteria have been addressed in these existing documents. This indexing process may also reveal how a mitigation strategy can concurrently address other community goals such as preserving open space, providing public access to the coast, managing growth, prioritizing capital improvements, and protecting natural resources.
It is the intent of this index to identify community mitigation goals that already exist and to provide an overview of how hazard mitigation can progress. This Guiding Principles section should not list new or proposed policies or programs. This information is addressed in Section 6, Mitigation Initiatives.
Guidance
To identify goals that address hazard mitigation and long-term recovery, a community should review the goals, policies, and objectives of its Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, particularly the Coastal Management Element--which includes the requirement to develop a post-disaster redevelopment plan. Any existing post disaster redevelopment plans or ordinances that a community has already developed or adopted may also help identify guiding principles. In addition, the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and the emergency management-based Five Year Strategic Plans developed through the county self-assessment process may help in this process.
The working group tasked with developing the strategy should start this process by reviewing these documents, along with a community’s existing ordinances (e.g., a floodplain management ordinance) and building codes. The working group can then develop an composite index that references the mitigation strategy criteria outlined in this guidebook. A good way to accomplish this task is to cite the documents where the criteria item is addressed, including page numbers, or other references.
Guiding Principles: Examples
| The Coastal Element of the Lee County Comprehensive Plan |
All coastal counties in the
State of Florida are required to develop and adopt regulations for managing coastal
resources in compliance with the minimum criteria set forth in Chapter 9J-5.012, of the
Florida Administrative Code. Based on the Coastal Management Element of its comprehensive
plan, Lee County adopted an ordinance that creates temporary moratoria on rebuilding all
structures with the exception of critical facilities necessary for post-storm recovery.
Moratoria are an example of a way to manage rebuilding so that effective mitigation
practices can be incorporated into construction efforts following a natural disaster.
Contact: Lee County Planning Department, tel. 941-479-8585 |
| The Winter Storm Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team Report (I-Team Report) |
After the Winter Storm, I-Teams
prepared reports that identified communities’ vulnerabilities to such natural hazards
and included a list of mitigation priorities designed to address these problems.
Subsequently, some of these recommended actions were implemented by the impacted local
governments. Because of this identify-the-problems-implement-the-solutions method, future
damages, such as those sustained in Tropical Storm Josephine, were reduced. Contact: Mr. Dennis Smith, Florida Department of Community Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, Bureau of Recovery and Mitigation, tel. 850-413-9958 |
| The Crosswalk from the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) |
Counties are required to
provide an index of where CEMP criteria items are addressed in the final plan. This index,
or crosswalk, helps the local government easily identify where it has addressed important
items. The local mitigation strategy suggests a similar indexing exercise to collate
complementary mitigation activities. Contact: Mr. Cicero Hartsfield, Florida Department of Community Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, Bureau of Preparedness and Response, tel. 850-413-9893 |
Guiding Principles Guidelines
- Identify goals that achieve hazard mitigation and long-term
recovery [including, but not limited to the Coastal Element of the local government
Comprehensive Plan, the floodplain management ordinance, and the local building code].
- Identify recommendation included in Interagency Hazard
Mitigation Team Reports or Strategy Papers developed in the aftermath of
presidentially-declared disaster events. Indicate how these recommendations have been or
might be addressed by the community.
- Index, or crosswalk, the content recommendations of the
local mitigation strategy with the relevant portions of existing local plans, policies,
and ordinances. [This item may be in the form of a table or matrix. See the guidelines in
Section 6, Mitigation Initiatives, for suggestions.]
- Provide a narrative description of how these linkages
contribute to the development of a comprehensive mitigation strategy.
- Identify other comprehensive plan goals that can be
addressed through a local mitigation strategy.
Identify any programs and policies that are at variance with the mitigation objectives outlined above.