Reso 2016-063 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1. Introduction 1.1 Background San Leandro is a vibrant and thriving community, but every aspect of the city - its economic prosperity, social and cultural diversity, and historical character - could be dramatically altered by a serious earthquake or fire. While we cannot predict or protect ourselves against every possible hazard that may strike the community, we can anticipate many impacts and take steps to reduce the harm they will cause. The City has been working for years to address certain aspects of the risk - such as strengthening structures, growing the City's emergency management procedures and infrastructure, and training city staff. The 2005 Disaster Mitigation plan formalized this process, ensuring that these activities continued to be explored and improved over time. Over many years, this constant focus on disasters has made San Leandro, and its residents and businesses, much safer. This 2015 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan continues this ongoing process to evaluate the risks that different hazards pose to San Leandro, and to engage the community in dialogue to identify the most important steps that the City and its partners should pursue to reduce these risks. The federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 called for all communities to prepare mitigation plans. 1.2 Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) requires that each State develop a hazard mitigation plan in order to receive future funding following a disaster. The new requirement provides some funding to each State to engage in planning activities to prepare the plan. The requirements also call for the development of local or county plans for that particular jurisdiction to be eligible for post -disaster funding. The purpose of these requirements is to have programs and projects in place that will help minimize the loss of life, property, environment, and total cost of disasters. DMA 2000 §201.6 (c) (3) of the requirements outlines the process for localities in developing their mitigation strategies. Specifically, the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan must "include a mitigation strategy that provides the jurisdiction's blueprint for reducing the potential losses identified in the risk assessment, based on existing authorities, policies, programs, and resources, and its ability to expand on and improve these existing tools." These strategies should be built on an assessment of hazard risks and vulnerabilities. The plans should include measures to mitigate hazard risks and demonstrate the benefit of these activities. They should also identify gaps in knowledge and data and a strategy to maintain and update the data, projects, information, and the overall mitigation plan.