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Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
Approved Plan
The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan was adopted by the City Council on December 11, 2019 and approved by FEMA on December 17, 2019.
Background
Rancho Santa Margarita Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
The City of Rancho Santa Margarita received Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant funding to prepare a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP). The LHMP presents a strategy for reducing the City’s vulnerability to the impacts of natural hazard events such as earthquakes, drought, and wildfire.
What is a Hazard Mitigation Plan?
A Hazard Mitigation Plan is a framework that guides our community in making decisions and developing policies to reduce or eliminate risk to life and property. The plan identifies the types of hazards that threaten our community, evaluates our vulnerability to those threats, and outlines a strategy to reduce or eliminate the risk posed by those threats and break the cycle of repeated destruction by natural hazard events.
Why is the plan important?
The Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) requires that a community have an approved hazard mitigation plan to be eligible to apply for and receive certain types of pre and post-disaster funding from FEMA. Receipt of these funds can be critical to implementation of identified hazard mitigation programs, or to recovery after a disaster.
What goes into a Hazard Mitigation Plan?
A hazard mitigation plan assesses the community’s risks and vulnerabilities to natural hazard events such as earthquakes, drought, and wildfire. The plan includes a set of goals related to the overall goal of hazard mitigation planning and mitigation actions that will serve to advance the plan goals.
Community survey
An on-line survey collected data from residents and community members between January 8 and March 28, 2019 to gauge the level of knowledge the community has about natural disasters and to obtain input about various types of natural disasters.