Pinellas County is planning to apply for Rebuild Florida CDBG - Mitigation funding for a proposed Countywide Flood Mitigation Plan. What are your thoughts?

Keeping Pinellas Above Water: Countywide Flood Mitigation Action Plan

Pinellas County is seeking Rebuild Florida - CDBG Mitigation Funding to create a Countywide Flood Mitigation Action Plan. This funding is specifically focused on mitigation efforts and is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the newly created, Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG-MIT).  This funding is specifically designed to support mitigation opportunities that can leverage local resources and involve a collaborative effort towards reducing our risks. As we seek this funding opportunity, we would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on the proposed project.

On May 15, 2020, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) launched the Rebuild Florida General Planning Support (GPS) Program, making a total of $20,000,000 available for eligible applicants, including units of general local government (UGLG). The GPS program is designed to provide funding opportunities for local governments to engage in pro-active mitigation planning and to create regional disaster mitigation plans. Final proposals are due to the DEO on July 31, 2020.

Learn more about: Rebuild Florida's Mitigation Programs 

The proposed Pinellas County Flood Mitigation Action Plan will be developed in coordination with its municipal partners, regional agencies, various county departments and community leaders.

The plan will benefit local governments by providing more precise data and mechanisms to address flood risks, as well as residents and business through education. The planning effort will leverage the recent state-approved Local Mitigation Strategy and an on-going vulnerability assessment that is evaluating future tidal and storm surge inundation. This new plan will conduct precipitation modeling for future climate conditions, collect terrestrial lidar of flood-prone structures, conduct asset exposure analyses for a suite of County/municipal owned assets located county-wide, and create a multi-decade flood mitigation plan that is tied to local comprehensive planning, capital improvement projects and enterprise asset management.

Initial Areas of Benefit include the Anclote River, Curlew Creek, McKay Creek, and Joe’s Creek watersheds, as well as the Southern Keys.

Proposed Activities include:

1. Flood hazard data and modeling acquisition
2. Community asset inventory collection
3. Flood hazard map development
4. Governmental asset exposure analysis
5. Flood risk mitigation and community adaptation strategy development
6. Mitigation prioritization and actions for community planning and procedures (e.g. CIP, EAM, Comp Plans, Watershed Planning)

How will this project benefit us?

The Pinellas Countywide Flood Mitigation Action Plan will provide substantial benefits to the community during current-day flooding circumstances and future conditions, including extreme weather events and impacts from sea-level rise, by providing advanced data and tools for planning and mitigation. Currently, the data collection, risk analysis, and hazards planning process varies at the municipal levels based on organizational capacity and governance protocols. It is known throughout the resilience industry that water knows no bounds and it is prudent to overcome vulnerabilities with a regional, collaborative approach. Thus, this project will provide a unified method for each local government to address flood risks that persists in the community.

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide local governments with information and guidelines to reduce flooding impacts to life and property. The project will assess the flood risks to a variety of day-to-day functions and thus impact a range of FEMA community lifelines such as, safety and security; food, water, and shelter; health and medical; energy; communications; transportation; and, hazardous material. Once completed, communities will have a more informed and standardized approach to update their internal programs, policies and infrastructure projects to increase the resiliency of its residents and visitors.  

Questions?

Please provide us your feedback and let us know what you think. This project would play a critical role in mitigating our current and future risks and strengthening our resiliency. We appreciate your interest in the project. Your input is invaluable in attaining the project goals. Please share your thoughts on the proposed project. In case you have any questions, please contact the project lead:

Hank Hodde, CFM, ENV SP

Sustainability & Resiliency Program Coordinator

[email protected]

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