Hazard Mitigation Plan Update

Hazard Mitigation refers to sustained measures enacted to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects. In the long term, mitigation measures reduce personal loss, save lives, and reduce the cost to the nation of responding to and recovering from disasters.

The city of Aurora is revising the 2016 Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) to lessen the vulnerability to disasters, and demonstrate the city’s commitment to reducing risks from natural hazards. An HMP serves as a guide for decision makers as they commit city resources to minimize the effects of natural hazards. The HMP is intended to integrate with existing planning mechanisms such as building and zoning regulations, long-range planning mechanisms, and environmental planning. The planning process includes conducting a thorough hazard vulnerability analysis, creating community disaster mitigation priorities, and developing subsequent mitigation strategies and projects.

The updated plan, which is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] for local jurisdictions to be eligible for disaster mitigation funding, will be available for public review and comment sometime in May – June 2021.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions for large gatherings, the public review period will be conducted online instead of an in-person, open house format. We desire public input and feedback on the planning process and final draft of the plan. The plan includes rating the risks associated with hazards in the city of Aurora, and how the city plans to address or lessen potential impacts of identified hazards.

Once the HMP is reviewed and approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the city is eligible to apply for grant funding to reduce the vulnerability to disasters within the community. Reducing vulnerability helps to break the cycle of disaster and ensures a sustainable future for the next generation. The following grant funding sources are available through FEMA:

• Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program
• Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
• Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program
• Rehabilitation of High Hazard Potential Dams (HHPD) program

While mitigation activities can and should be taken before a disaster occurs, hazard mitigation is essential after a disaster. Oftentimes after disasters, repairs and reconstruction are completed in such a way as to simply restore damaged property to pre-disaster conditions. These efforts may get the community back to normal, but the replication of pre-disaster conditions may result in a repetitive cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. This recurrent reconstruction becomes more expensive as the years go by. Hazard mitigation breaks this repetitive cycle by taking a long-term view of rebuilding and recovering following disasters. The implementation of such hazard mitigation actions leads to building stronger, safer and smarter communities that are better able to reduce future injuries and future damage.

• Prevention - Government, administrative or regulatory actions that influence the way land and buildings are developed to reduce hazard losses. Includes planning and zoning, floodplain laws, capital improvement programs, open space preservation, and stormwater management regulations.
• Property Protection - Modification of buildings or structures to protect them from a hazard or removal of structures from a hazard area. Includes acquisition, elevation, relocation, structural retrofit, storm shutters and shatter-resistant glass.
• Public Education and Awareness - Actions to inform citizens and elected officials about hazards and ways to mitigate them. Includes outreach projects, real estate disclosure, hazard information centers, and school-age and adult education.
• Natural Resource Protection - Actions that minimize hazard loss and preserve or restore the functions of natural systems. Includes sediment and erosion control, stream corridor restoration, watershed management, forest and vegetation management, and wetland restoration and preservation.
• Emergency Services - Actions that protect people and property during and immediately after a hazard event. Includes warning systems, emergency response services, and the protection of essential facilities.
• Structural Projects - Actions that involve the construction of structures to reduce the impact of a hazard. Includes dams, setback levees, floodwalls, retaining walls and safe rooms.

• Enforcement of building codes, floodplain management codes and environmental regulations.
• Public safety measures such as continual maintenance of roadways, culverts and dams.
• Acquisition of relocation of structures, such as purchasing buildings located in a floodplain.
• Acquisition of undeveloped hazard prone lands to ensure no future construction occurs there.
• Retrofitting of structures and design of new construction, such as elevating a home or building.
• Protecting critical facilities and infrastructure from future hazard events.
• Planning for hazard mitigation, emergency operations, disaster recovery, and continuity of operations.
• Development and distribution of outreach materials related to hazard mitigation.
• Deployment of warning systems to alert and notify the public.