Vermont Business Magazine The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) has completed the first draft of the 2016 update to the Chittenden County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazards Mitigation Plan. The purpose of mitigation planning is to identify policies and actions that can be implemented over the long term to reduce damages to lives, property, and the economy from future disasters.
The CCRPC will be hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 pm at the CCRPC office in Winooski (110 West Canal Street) to describe the draft Multi-Jurisdictional Plan and receive public input. The draft Plan can be viewed at http://www.ccrpcvt.org/our-work/emergency-management/hazard-mitigation-plan/.
Over the past year, CCRPC staff has worked with a committee comprised of municipal representatives, State agency staff and others, to review data on significant hazards affecting the county, assess risks and vulnerabilities from those hazards and revise and update regional-level strategies. Significant hazards addressed in the plan include: severe rainstorms, flooding, erosion, water pollution, and economic recession and their associated vulnerabilities of damage to public infrastructure; temporary road and bridge closures; temporary power or telecommunication loss; temporary isolation of vulnerable individuals; and budgetary impacts.
To address these significant hazards and vulnerabilities, this draft plan proposes the following six strategies to be carried out by the CCRPC in partnership with its member municipalities. These include:
- Assist municipalities with development of plans, policies and land development regulations;
- Promote hazard mitigation projects in tactical basin plans and flood resiliency planning;
- Assist municipalities in developing and improving infrastructure;
- Assist municipalities in protecting people, buildings and facilities where development already exists in vulnerable areas;
5. Assist municipalities in promoting growth in appropriate locations and in transportation infrastructure planning; and
6. Assist municipalities in meeting standards to minimize required municipal share toward FEMA Public Assistance project costs.
The CCRPC is also working with each of its member municipalities to update their individual Local All-Hazard Mitigation Plans which are annexes to the Multi-Jurisdictional Plan.
Comments on this first draft may be submitted until July 11, 2016 by contacting Dan Albrecht, CCRPC Senior Planner: [email protected] or (802) 846-4490 x*29. Comments can also be provided at the June 29th meeting. There will be additional opportunities for public review and comment when a second draft is released later this summer.