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Floodplain Management and the Comprehensive Plan: Beyond the FEMA Flood Map
Part 4 of 5 in our August series on Public Safety and Hazard Mitigation in the Comprehensive Plan. Nearly every comprehensive plan acknowledges flood risk. Too seldom do our planning processes translate that acknowledgment into effective floodplain management. Every community has a relationship with water. Some are defined by a major river, a lake, a…
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The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and the Comprehensive Plan: When the Plans Finally Talk
Part 5 of 5 in our August series on Public Safety and Hazard Mitigation in the Comprehensive Plan. In most cities and counties, the Hazard Mitigation Plan and the comprehensive plan live in separate binders — prepared by separate offices, often in separate places, by decisionmakers who don’t know each other, let alone talk to…
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Land Use: The Hidden Blueprint for Your Town’s Future
Somewhere in your county, there’s a parcel that’s about to become a question. The family that farmed it for three generations has kids who moved away years ago. They’ve got their own lives, their own mortgages, their own reasons for wanting to convert that ground into something they can sell. They find a developer who’s…
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Man-Made Hazards and Land Use Planning: The Risks Nobody Puts on the Map
Part 3 of 5 in our August series on Public Safety and Hazard Mitigation in the Comprehensive Plan. When most people hear “hazard mitigation,” they think of floods, tornadoes, wildfires, or winter storms. Those are real and familiar risks, especially in rural communities. But communities also face hazards created by the systems we build, the…
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Natural Hazards and the Comprehensive Plan: The Hazards Are Already on the Map
Part 2 of 5 in our August series on Public Safety and Hazard Mitigation in the Comprehensive Plan. Every community has natural hazards. Not every community has chosen to shape their future to put resilience to hazards front and center. That distinction is at the heart of hazard mitigation and comprehensive planning. Tornadoes, floods, drought,…
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