County in Final Stage of Mitigation Planning
-Public Meeting to Review Plans on Jan. 7–
Santa Rosa County is in the final step of a five year comprehensive update to the local mitigation strategy multi-hazard plan and the flood mitigation plan. A public presentation of both plans will be made on Thursday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. in the board room of the Santa Rosa County Administrative Center located at 6495Caroline Street in Milton. The public is encouraged to attend this meeting to comment and make recommendations on the draft plans. Both plan drafts will be available on the county’s website beginning Thursday, Dec. 31 at www.santarosa.fl.gov/lms. After final public input is collected, the plans will be submitted and reviewed by the state and FEMA. Once approved, the plans will be adopted and implemented by the county.
The flood mitigation plan, which is an appendix to the multi-hazard plan, was originally developed in 2009 by the flood mitigation plan task force and has been a valuable tool towards the improvement of the county’s CRS rating, resulting in savings to flood insurance policy holders in Santa Rosa County. The local mitigation strategy task force worked to complete the update to the local mitigation strategy multi-hazard plan. Planning efforts have been underway since April 2015.
Both plans were developed using FEMA’s 10-step process:
- Organize to prepare the plan
- Involve the public
- Coordinate with other agencies
- Assess the hazard
- Assess the problem
- Set goals
- Review possible activities
- Draft an action plan
- Adopt the plan
- Implement, evaluate and revise
For more information about the county’s mitigation planning efforts, please contact Sheila Fitzgerald, Grants & Special Projects Director at (850) 983-1848.
