REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Recommendation to City Council to Adopt a General Plan Amendment to Incorporate the Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP) and the City of Santa Clara Local Annex into the City's General Plan
Report
BACKGROUND
In November 2022, the City of Santa Clara participated in a coalition of Santa Clara County cities and special districts preparing to lessen the impacts of natural hazards by updating the Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP). A MJHMP is a document that outlines strategies to reduce the vulnerability of a community across multiple jurisdictions to natural and man-made hazards by identifying potential risks, assessing vulnerabilities, and developing mitigation actions to minimize damage from disasters, often requiring collaboration between cities, counties, and state agencies. The MJHMP allows the City to access Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding in case of a natural disaster.
The City Council adopted the MJHMP and the City of Santa Clara Local Annex on August 27, 2024 (Attachment 3). This is the fourth update to the Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was initially approved in 2005.
As a follow-on action, the City is proposing a General Plan Amendment to recognize the updated MJHMP in the Safety Element of the City's General Plan. This update will provide consistency between the City's documents.
DISCUSSION
The proposed General Plan Amendment updates existing language in the Emergency Preparedness subsection of Section 5.10.5, Safety Goals and Policies, to reference the most recent update to the MJHMP.
Incorporation of the MJHMP and Local Annex makes the City eligible to be considered for part or all of its local-share costs on eligible Public Assistance projects to be provided by the state through the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA). A CDAA (AB 2140 (2006)) fact sheet is attached to this report (Attachment 2).
AB 2140 al...
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