Making California Safer: CRP Prepares the 2007 State Hazard Mitigation Plan

For a little over a year, a Cal Poly team--led by these featured authors--was engaged in preparing California’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was officially adopted in December 2007. This important work proves the capacity of Cal Poly and, specifically, the CRP Department in engaging in community outreach. The plan will facilitate mitigation planning and actions by the various federal, state, and local agencies and stakeholders, leading the way towards a safer California. Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus This Faculty and Student Work is brought to you for free and open access by the City and Regional Planning at DigitalCommons@CalPoly. It has been accepted for inclusion in Focus by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CalPoly. For more information, please contact mwyngard@calpoly.edu. Recommended Citation Topping, Kenneth; Siembieda, William; and Boswell, Michael R. (2008) "Making California Safer: CRP Prepares the 2007 State Hazard Mitigation Plan," Focus: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 13. DOI: 10.15368/focus.2008v5n1.8 Available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus/vol5/iss1/13 making California safer: Crp prepares The 2007 sTaTe hazarD miTigaTion plan Ken toPPing, william Siembieda, and michael boSwell Ken Topping (FAICP) is lecturer, William Siembieda (Ph.D. and AICP) is professor and department head, and Michael Boswell (Ph.D. and AICP) is associate professor at Cal Poly’s CRP Department. For a little over a year, a Cal Poly team--led by these featured authors--was engaged in preparing California’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was officially adopted in December 2007. This important work proves the capacity of Cal Poly and, specifically, the CRP Department in engaging in community outreach. The plan will facilitate mitigation planning and actions by the various federal, state, and local agencies and stakeholders, leading the way towards a safer California. Figure 1 Ken Topping, Michael Boswell, and William Siembieda. 1 The Plan can be retrieved from http:// hazardmitigation.oes. ca.gov/plan/state_multihazard_mitigation_plan_ shmp. The City and Regional Planning Department has helped the State of California become a leader in planning for safety and long-term community sustainability in the face of ongoing earthquakes, floods, wildfires and other natural and humancaused disasters. In a partnership with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) a faculty-student team from Cal Poly prepared the 2007 State of California Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was adopted on October 8, 2007 by OES Director Henry Renteria. The 2007 Plan was designated as an Enhanced State Mitigation Plan on December 17, 2007, after being initially approved in October 2007 as a Standard Plan, meeting minimum legal requirements. The Enhanced Plan designation is good for the next three years, until the 2010 Plan is submitted for FEMA approval An Enhanced Plan designation assures eligibility for substantially greater amounts of mitigation funding than a Standard Plan. This means that, after future disasters, California will get federal mitigation grant funding amounting to tens of millions of mitigation dollars for disasters the size of the October 2007 wildfires and hundreds of millions for mitigation after a catastrophic disaster. Only 11 other state plans have such designations.